Eigenwijzerman goes international

Since a fair share of my acquaintances and friends haven't been able so far to follow the blogs of Eigenwijzerman, I decided to give it a try. I also start posting in English.

So here is a brief introduction. I started blogging about triathlon for charity. That is, I started to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish foundation (hence: your donation is much appreciated!). This organization grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope strength and joy.

To do so I started www.eigenwijzerman.nl. Eigenwijzerman is a character name I made up to distract the attention from myself when I am blogging. It is an alter ego like Superman and Clark Kent. There is one big difference though, I am not claiming to have any super powers. Quite to the contrary, my blogs are more the story of an anti-hero. In that respect a more applicable comparison would be Super Grover and Grover Kent (yes, that is the family name of Grover of Sesame Street!)

Of course, blogging in English is as doable as blogging in Dutch.Yet, there remains this one big challenge: how to translate Eigenwijzerman (which consists of the words "eigenwijzer" (comparative of "eigenwijs") and "ijzerman")?

Let us start with "ijzerman". "Ijzerman" is easy as it is the literal translation of Ironman. This is what my whole quest is all about. I am training for Ironman Frankfurt in July 2013. I will explain one more time what it is. Ironman is a triathlon consisting of a 3.86km swim, a 180.2km bike and a 42.195km run. It is a tough cookie, but it is fun (really!).

Now the word "eigenwijzer", which is, as said, the comparative of "eigenwijs". A quick Google search for "eigenwijs" renders words like: "stubborn", "obstinate", and "headstrong". Of course, this is what the word does mean in Dutch as well, but it misses the nice connotation it also has in Dutch when we refer to the playful and investigative behavior of a toddler, or little pet for that matter. Therefore, I dismiss the option of a literal translation.

What about a more slang-like translation? "eigenwijs" would then be best translated as "smart-ass". But smart-ass won't do either, since everyone who knows me a bit knows that this doesn't apply to me at all(wink).

But, what else? In order to settle this issue, I did some soul searching and listed some personal traits. I am pretty sporty, clumsy, unorganized, calm, pretty smart, a bit nerdy, not so attentive, etc etc, a bit cynical, quite ironic... Hey, Ironic, iron... ironman......Ironicman!

Ironicman is seemingly suitable, but it won't do either. I have three arguments. 1. He already exists. 2. It sounds a bit cheesy. 3. It reminds me of Alanis Morisette, who is a great singer, but for some reason I always associate her (justified or not) with hairy armpits. So, instead of having a picture in my head of hairy armpits (which is there by now anyway), I stick to Eigenwijzerman. 

So, here is the official announcement. Now hear this, now hear this: Eigenwijzerman goes international every once in a while. To pronounce Eigenwijzerman if you are non-Dutch is a tough job, I admit, but doing an Ironman is much tougher.