Mottainai

[This Aka kindergartner is selling purses made out of reused bubble wrap.]

Mottainai is a word unique to the Japanese language that sums up the American saying "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" with the addition of "Repair." The rough translation of mottainai is "it is so wasteful that things are not made full use of their value." From my experience so far, it can be used more as 'make use of things and don't waste their value' rather than 'don't be wasteful.' The difference I mean is that you can tell someone mottainai when they haven't finished their meal and intend to throw out food, but it's not the right word when telling someone to turn off the lights. I use this word liberally, though, because they know I don't quite understand.

Wangari Maathai is a Kenyan environmentalist who is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner. She has done a lot of research on 'mottainai' and found no comparable single word in any other language. So she has undertaken an effort to put the word into international lexicon by using it in her speeches and having the audience repeat it.

In early October, as I was just learning this word, I heard a timely story on NPR's Morning Edition about a new children's book in Japan called "Mottainai Grandma." It's a story about a mother explaining to her son why he has to finish his rice and why his grandma says "mottainai" to him. The story can be found and listened to here.

There is never a case to use mottainai in the lunchroom. Every student finishes every bit of food on their plate. I am usually the only one who pours any edible food into the food waste can (and that's only mayo scraped off my bread or salty broth from my soup). It's an amazing phenomena that seems an impossibility in America.

So next time you catch someone (or yourself) starting the washer when it's not full, or throwing away food, or wasting paper, say "mottainai!"