Even a kid could get that.

I agree that children and teenagers would make direct connections to the word. This happens in any society, in any language. It’s actually integral to my point. Young and old acquire new vocabulary differently and encounter new words in different situations. I’ll grant you that some words are learned in the direct-connection manner, by adults and children - most notably all the words for foreign foods. I mention this in the podcast. However, you’re looking at the acquisiation of words in too general a way. I spoke about loanwords in the context of future shock. You have to imagine the situations when this occurs and ask yourself how you or anyone would process words in those situations. For example: How does one process new words when you read an instruction manual for a digital camera, if you’ve never owned one before? How does one process new words when you are listening to a political ad on the radio? What about when reading in the paper that the グロバルヘルスケアアプリケイションプロジェクット (gurobaru herusukea apurikeishon purojekutto) is getting it’s funding reduced? I maintain that a younger person, due would work through it and realize that the global healthcare application project is getting less money, but an older person would likely through up there hands and wonder what the fuck was happening to the world around them.

I think it is significant that the loanwords of the past quarter century are not connected (or tethered - to use my term from the podcast) to the Japanese language for a couple of reasons. First, because adults don’t learn like children and second, because many of these new words are first encountered in written form. Many of the loanwords that refer to computer usage and new technology would first be encountered on websites, in instruction manuals, and written in embossed plastic on the underside of various gadgets. I’ll grant you that imported words for food and clothing and such are learned in the manner you described, but new technical jargon and political ideas are often learned while puzzling through instruction manuals and newsweeklies - times when a knowledge of the prefixes, suffixes, and word formation would normally come into play.

Is it really important whether or not loan words, such as ダウンロード (download) are tethered in Japanese or not? I don’t think many English-speakers are coming to the meanings of such words intuitively, more likely they’re exposed to a new concept, exposed to a word that explains it, and they associate the two, like a child learning nouns.
Is it more important to say that someone could infer the meaning of a word or that they are likely to?

Ken - I think the comparing and contrasting how the Chinese and Japanese deal with new tech and foreign ideas would be an excellent topic, but I’m not the man to address it - I don’t know jack about China. Maybe a conversation between someone who knows China but not Japan and someone (me?) who’s got the opposite knowledge base would be enlightening.

Keep up the great work guys.