>> > But every US highschool dropout knows what a hinge is called.  Why don't
>> > even well-educated Japanese like shuji matsuda know it in Japanese?

>> The high school (BTW, it's 'high school,' not 'highschool' -- do you spell
>> them 'elementaryschool' and 'juniorhighschool' too?)
> I'm on a crusade to make it one word: highschool.  Always spell it like
> that. I ignore my spellchecker.
>> dropouts you speak of
>> most likely took 'shop' in school before they dropped out.  As far as I
>> know, there is no sort of 'shop class' in Japan, at least at normal schools.
> I've mentioned this in other posts, but "hinge" and "barbed wire" and
> "socket" and "spark plug" and "plunger" and "spatula"...I didn't learn
> these words in school.  These are just words one picks up in the process
> of living.
>> Are you smarter or more erai because you know
>> what a hinge or plunger are?  Does that mean you use your brain to more of
>> its capacity
>> than someone who doesn't know the actual name, but could only describe it?
> No, no, that's not what I'm implying here.  My post to Yoshida is just
> verbal jousting.  Please don't read too much into it.  Really, I'm just
> making a cultural observation.  myaw, in her Japanese posts, has made
> many of the same comments I have.  She is granted this privilege solely
> because she is Japanese?

>> So, what are the English words for 'natsukashii,' 'kuyashii,' 'yabai,'
>> 'mecha kucha ni naru,' 'doumo,' 'wabisabi no sekai,' etc.?  Since we don't
>> have them, does that mean we can't express ourselves well?

> But these are a little different, don't you think?  They aren't tangible
> nouns.  They are concepts.  And people of different cultures
> conceptualize differently.

>> > Are you saying that the common knowledge of Westerners is vaster than
>> > that of the Japanese?

>> Do you mean 'gooder than' or was it a typo of 'faster'?  I think it's 'more
>> vast than that of...'
> Not sure.  Is "vaster" incorrect?  My spell checker didn't catch it.