In plain Nerdish, please!

by Rebecca Burn-Callander - Monday, 21st April 2008 - (3) comments - Business comment

It’s the language that’s taking Europe by storm. Nerdish has broken out of the IT department and into the boardroom. The question is, “Are you ready to Rickroll?”

Move over Esperanto. According to pixmania, Nerdish is the fastest-growing language in Europe. So, if you’ve been feeling out of the loop and the screenagers in your cube farm have been whispering “Internot” whenever you walk by…

Here’s a crash course in deciphering the technobabble.

Right, presuming you’re not an alpha geek [self-explanatory – the biggest IT boffin in your office], the above terms will be Greek to you. A “cube farm” is an office divided into cubicles, a screenager – one of those irritating whelps that was born with an iPhone in one hand and a WIMAX-enabled Macbook Air in the other, and an “Internot”? Well, thankfully none of our RB.co.uk readers fall into that category, an internot’s someone who doesn’t use the net.

Now that you’ve gotten your brain around these basic terms, let’s see if you can translate the Nerdish below.

“Got to the cube farm ten minutes late, nearly missed the fleshmeet with the big cheese. Not that it would have mattered, that dumb internot can barely use his ancient doorstop. He just sits there fingering his keyboard plaque all day.

“Still, better watch my back. I’ve got a feeling he’s looking to have me uninstalled. Must schedule an Outlook date with the alpha geek, if I can pry him away from his media stacking.

“First, must delete history. The trail of ecosurfing isn’t gonna help my case if they’re downsizing. He’s not gonna believe I’m proving my bandwidth, not when our cobwebs are generating fewer hits than Spanners Weekly.

“Maybe I could convince the boss to make me an open-collar worker. Knowing my luck, he’ll just take that as a hint to hire some plug-and-play to fill my boots.

“Ergh. I wish cyberchondriac would stop eye-balling my monitor. He totally clocked this macarena page. I just want to say, ‘Go work on your time-boxing, mouse potato!’. How about a little Monday afternoon revenge…

“New message. ‘Unbeatable tips for chatting up hotties!’

Ha ha ha ha…”

Picture source

WHAT NEXT?
Sign up for our newsletter and get our weekly pick of business news in your inbox!
Subscribe to our magazine for in depth interviews and advice from leading entrepreneurs!
Join our forum and talk business with other entrepreneurs!

3 Comments

April 22, 2008 6:46pm
Detlef Karthaus Says:

Nerdic and Esperanto are at opposite ends of the spectrum so there's no need for anyone to move over. Nerdic is designed for a small in-crowd and meant to be incomprehensible to the rest. Esperanto is designed for everyone. If it seems that Esperanto is only understood by an in-crowd that's because everyone else hasn't done their homework, not from a desire to shut them out.

April 22, 2008 12:16pm
Ian Fantom Says:

Esperanto's too easy. What's needed is a cult language, like Nerdish or Eurobabble. That's why it's not been adopted in the EU. Oh, yeah, that's exactly a reason given by a GCE board for refusing an O-level in Esperanto in England!

April 21, 2008 7:41pm
Bill Chapman Says:

If you're looking for a real language that really is taking Europe by storm, try Esperanto. I have used it in speech and in writing for 40 years, but it continues to attract preople who want a planned language for business or pleasure. Take a look at www.esperanto.net