Re: mottainai

Cindy <cindy15464973@xxxxxxx> dixit:
>Chris Kern wrote:
>> Yesterday at a farewell party I heard yet again from a Japanese person
>> that "Japanese is the only language with the concept of 'mottainai'".
>> I don't know of any meaning of 'mottainai' that can't be covered by
>> the English phrase "it's a waste". Even Koizumi said at one point
>> that foreigners cannot understand "mottainai". Is there some hidden
>> meaning of the word I'm not aware of or is this just more nihonjinron?

>It's rather "What a waste!" at most of times.

[snip]

>In some cases, mottainai can simply mean "stupid" too.

OK, Cindy, as an NSoJ who has lived in an English-speaking country
for a long time and is fluent in English, do you agree with the statement
"Japanese is the only language with the concept of 'mottainai'"?

Do you think such a concept doesn't and can't exist in English?

--
Jim Breen http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学
.

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