Admit it, this article’s title made you curious and you decided to read further because you wanted to know what it was all about. A good, intriguing title can play a vital part in an article, text, essay or novel’s success and fame. That’s why a certain Bruce Robinson invented the Diagram Prize in 1978, an award that celebrates the oddest book title of the year.

If you’re still wondering why we mentioned chickens and goblins, the winner of this year’s Diagram Prize is a publication called Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop. By doing so, this extremely odd title won from rivals such as How Tea Cosies Changed The World and God’s Doodle: The Life and Times of the Penis. 

What is the strangest book title that you have ever encountered? Let us now, we’re in desperate need of new books with fascinating titles.

The end of the world is nigh. Unless you’ve been living under a rock (which, ironically, is where some of the people who believe the world is going to end are actually living) for the past year you’ve undoubtedly heard the rumours that the world could/will end on 21 December 2012. Newspaper articles, documentaries, Facebook updates, tweets, TV reports... all of this leads to a lot of uncommon or unfamiliar vocabulary being used. So that’s why we’ve made a small list of some of the keywords and names, ensuring that you will be perceived as a true apocalypse connoisseur. Your fame and reputation will, of course, only last for two more days but hey, it’s better than nothing, isn’t it?

Bugarach: a small Pyrenean village that is currently being flooded with people because, according to an old prophecy, it will be the only place on earth left standing after 21 December. It is also rumoured that there are spaceships inside the oddly-shaped mountain that looms over the village.

Doomsday destination: see Bugarach.

Doomsday party: Any excuse for a party! Doomsday parties are popping up everywhere and on the 21st of December, many people will be facing the apocalypse in their dancing shoes. ‘If the world does end, we might as well go down dancing and if not, well, then we still had a good time’, seems to be the general idea.

Doomsday prepper: Someone who is meticulously preparing him or herself in order to survive the apocalypse. Stocking up on dried foods, canned goods, water supplies; a prepper is ready to live in a customized shelter for a few months.

Mayan calendar: The main instigator of all this apocalyptic frenzy. Apparently, their 5,125-year spanning calendar ends on 21 December 2012, which has been interpreted by some people as the inevitable end of the world. But then again, every calendar has to stop at one point, doesn't it?

Nasa video: The space agency is so confident in its prediction that the world will not end in 2012 that it posted a Youtube video to reassure everyone. The video was originally intended to be published on 22 December (the day after) but instead, they choose to upload it a couple of days ago in an attempt to counter outbursts of fear and panic.

Nibiru: a ‘supposed planet’, rapidly making its way to earth, which will lead to a fatal collision on, yep, you guessed it, 21 December 2012. Nibiru was actually meant to hit our planet in 2003 but since this, for some strange and mysterious reason, didn’t happen the date of impact was postponed to 21 December 2012, linking nicely with the end of the Mayan calendar.
 
So, tell us what  you'll be doing on 21 December? If you're planning on a last-minute trip to Bugarach, don't forget to contact ElaN for a quick French language session.

Tim Cunningham

Yves Leterme, Belgium's former prime minister, and twitter have a very difficult relationship. On numerous occasions, he tweeted what appeared to be private messages to all of his followers (he has more than 50,000 of them). In Belgium this is known as 'een Letermeken doen', thus meaning that you're blundering while using social media. And it seems that this coined phrase is becoming famous abroad. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal posted an article about Leterme's twitter gaffes and they even mentioned 'to do a Letermeken'. What are the odds that the whole world will be talking about 'doing a Letermeken' in a couple of years from now? With the ever-growing popularity and importance of social media, we wouldn't be surprised if it became part of our general vocabulary.

Sometimes, all it takes to become a worldwide success is a few funny-sounding words put together in a slightly ambiguous manner. The viral hype of the day comes from last night's election debate in the US. While addressing the topic of women's issues, presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the following: "Well, gosh, can't we find some women that are also qualified? And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said: 'Can you help us find folks,' and they brought us whole binders full of women.”

The phrase 'binders full of women' has since then become a hit on the internet. Thousands of spoofs and comments have been posted about this quite unusual pairing of words. One of our favourite mock pictures has been posted here. We see a still from The Lord Of The Rings in which the character’s original line (‘One does not simply walk into Mordor’) has been replaced with Mitt Romney’s phrase. But there is plenty of material out there (for example, Bill Clinton is a recurring figure in plenty of these binder jokes), so feel free to post your favourites on our website and blog. The more the merrier, we would like a binder full of jokes please!

Here at ElaN we’re obviously huge fans of perfectly constructed sentences and eloquent discussions but every now and then we like a nice bit of gossip as well. You know, the dirty secrets, the juicy stories, the latest word on the street, etc... But what if we could combine the two, namely gossip about language?

Mignon Fogarty, a celebrity grammar expert (yes, they do exist) in the USA, created a tabloid cover to promote her book ‘101 Troublesome Words’. If this was for real we'd buy every copy, that’s for sure! So tell us, what are your most shocking language mistakes? Or do you want us to contact the paparazzi to find out?

Euro 2012 is finished, the dust is settling and a new verb seems to have emerged from the tournament: to kerzhakov. The English newspaper The Guardian used it during their match report of England vs Italy and apparently it means 'to miss a perfect opportunity'. In the 48th minute of the game, this is what happened according to the newspaper: 'It should have been dealt with without any fuss whatsoever, but the England defence was dozing and it dropped to De Rossi, who turned and Kerzhakoved a volley wide from six yards out! ' 

The word refers to the Russian player Aleksandr Kerzhakov who missed plenty of good chances during Euro 2012. His reaction to all of the above? 'What can I say if they have a lack of words in their vocabulary'?  (We think that many of our English students at ElaN will disagree when they are confronted with endless lists of English vocabulary).

But as both language aficionados and football fans we are obviously thrilled to see that new vocabulary can arise from these championships. That's why we would like to suggest a few new verbs as well:

To balotelli: to take off your shirt whenever you have done your job magnificently (For example: After sealing a major contract he balotellied in front of his colleagues.)

To iniesta: to be able to perform magic (For example: At ElaN, our translators and language trainers are striving to iniesta on a daily basis.)

To Ireland: to sing great songs while being funny & friendly and while wearing an amazing green hat (For example: Last night, we were irelanding when the police came and asked us to stop but we convinced them to join us and together we irelanded until the break of dawn.) 

Do you have any EURO 2012-related verb suggestions? Let us know in the comments section below!

Zegt je bedrijfsnaam iets over je activiteiten? Beter wel. Maar deze 10 voorbeelden hadden toch beter twee keer nagedacht voor ze hun naam met de wereld deelden.

De wagen reed iemand met een kaas-ham-paddenstoelengezicht aan. Klinkt best wel lekker!

Alleen mogelijk in België: tweetalige verkeersinstructies in één zin. In de Kempen dan nog, in geen velden of wegen een taalgrens te zien :)

Onbedoeld grappige vertalingen zijn 80% humor, 10% leedvermaak en 10% hoop dat het ons nooit zal overkomen. En dan vooral in reclamecampagnes die in het hele land te zien zijn .

Lees de mooiste voorbeelden hier.

Niet dat we van plan waren om te gaan wildplassen, maar dit klinkt toch wat drastisch!

© Laurence Goffin

Vandaag is er om de hoek een vee-actie. Een optocht met koeien? Varkens die staken?

En is het dan niet 'veeactie'? Benieuwd!

Foto © Geert Van Damme

Vertalen is niet alleen 'tekst' in een andere taal omzetten. Soms kan het ook handig zijn om lengtematen en munteenheden om te zetten voor je doelpubliek. Iemand bijvoorbeeld een idee wat hij zich moet voorstellen bij 2000 roepies, of 500 shilling?

Maar soms kun je daar iets te ijverig in zijn, zoals persagentschap Reuters over de wereldberoemde rapper ... 50 Cent.

Communicatiemedewerker Brussels Open: "Oeps, ons persbericht moet nog naar het Nederlands vertaald worden en het moet over een halfuur buiten!"

Communicatiemanager: "Stuur het gewoon door Google Translate"

Medewerker: "Zou dat oké zijn?"

Manager: "Tuurlijk!"

En aldus geschiedde :)

Ondanks alle regels blijft taal soms ongrijpbaar. En gelukkig maar!