If you look up the word Natsukashii in a Japanese-English dictionary, you might find something like “dear,” “desired,” or “missed.” But that’s not really what it means; it’s just that there’s no way to directly translate it into English. Natsukashii is used to communicate a feeling of “Awww, I remember that! Those were such nice times, just thinking about it makes me feel so…natsukashii.”
It’s a cool feeling when you’re learning a foreign language and start to realize that there are things you can communicate more effectively in that language than in your own native tongue. Natsukashii is a simple example. But taking it a step farther, what happens when you find there are things you can’t communicate in your native language at all? Every once in awhile when a friend asks the meaning of a word or phrase, I find that I somehow can’t manage to describe it – without using Japanese. Continue reading »
