It grates on me that male pronouns are the default in English, so that "he" means "he or she" if gender is undetermined. The Spanish language is similarly sexist, but the Spanish are batty enough to do something about it:
In Spanish, there are many nouns which end in a "o" if referring to a male, and "a" if referring to a female. For example: chico/chica (child), maestro/maestra (teacher), hijo/hija (son/daughter). The nouns are pluralized with an "s". So a group of boys is "chicos"; and a group of girls is "chicas". In a mixed group, the male version is always used. So when we are talking about 99 girls and 1 boy, it's "chicos".
To combat this insidious oppression, Spaniards have begun to write "chic@s." Now if only auto-correct would stop turning it into an email address. How to pronounce it is anybody's guess.
Unabashedly snipped from Moonbattery
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