One child asked me, "Do we have to get the "le" and "la" right?"
"Of course," I replied.
"That's not fair," said the crest-fallen child.
"Fair, schmair," I said, turning away, ending the conversation in the most mature and adult way I know.
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But learning the gender of nouns is very important for students of foreign languages.
One reason for this is that French, Spanish and German have words whose meanings vary depending on their gender.
Here are some examples:
French:
le souris (archaic) = smile, la souris = mouse
le livre = book, la livre = pound
le tour = tour, la tour = tower
Spanish:
el mañana = future, la mañana = morning
el papa = pope, la papa = potato
el moral = blackberry bush, la moral = morality
German:
der Elf = elf, die Elf = team
der Leiter = manager, die Leiter = ladder
das Tor = gate, der Tor = fool
So, when that beautiful foreign stranger you've been practising your language skills on has a large mouse on her face as you explain why you don't agree with the potato's views on blackberry bushes, you're going to look a complete gate and you'll really wish you had learned the genders as well as the nouns.
