From: "ethereal art" > > Message: 10 > > From: "Guy Glorieux" <guy.glori...@sympatico.ca> > > > > There is something wonderful about teaching (which all the teachers out > > there will recognize). It is that the teacher receives as much from his > > students as he gives them and that something much greater emerges from > > this interaction than the simple exchange of information. > > Or HER students... > You know I couldn't resist that, Guy! ;-) > Rosanne >
Aaaaarrrrgggg....! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it...! I knew that at some point my true nature as a male chauvinist would come it...! Grrrrrrrrr..... -;) Seriously, There is something fascinating about the way gender identification goes in the English language. In French, gender is identified immediately with the person: e.g. "the" teacher is either "le" or "la" professeur. Then "his" or "her" students are gender neutral as "ses" étudiants (unless, of course there was only one student, in which case the student's gender would be clearly identified in it's own right as "son étudiant" or "son étudiante" while the possessive would still remain gender neutral as "son"). Now in English, things go exactly in the opposite: "the" teacher's gender is only identified on the basis of "his"/"her" possessions....! As if the person's gender was not important in and of itself but was a tributary of what they owned.... And, of course, since women were not allowed to own anything except until very recently, how could they pretend to have an existence of their own.....! But "ze" French, on the other hand, having clearly identified gender with the individual could immediately make the difference between, for instance, a "courtisan" and a "courtisanne"....! Hmmmm.... Verrry interrrresting, my dear Rosanne. -;)) Guy
