he says she says

I'm not tri-lingual. I'm still working through French, so nevermind mastering Spanish. Better said - I can make myself understood in 3 languages. English is easy, all things are "it" (or neutral) and people have genders. Makes sense to me. Except Spanish and French don't work like that. Genders are assigned to inanimate objects. Did you know that in a couch is male? Shocking, is it not?

I've learned to deal with the concept and not question it. Over time, the gender- assignment begins to come naturally and you don't even think about it. Until, one day, I noticed that some things switch genders from language to language. Yes, it's true. Didn't know a fork had a gender? That's alright, in French it's "une forchette" (female) and in Spanish its "un tenedor" (male). Oh, the fun doesn't stop there! Watching a gender- neutral movie? Or, are you watching "un film" (male) or "una pelicula" (female).

It never ceases to amaze me how diverse each language is! I may sound like I'm complaining about it (which I might be, because when you think you have it, then they switch things around on you!) but it's really interesting to see the little switches and changes that make each language individual. I'm thankful I'm not learning German... they have male, female and gender-neutral inanimate objects!!