Came across this interesting compilation,thanks to Dipani Sutaria,these are my personal favorites :-)
If you'd like to check out the whole list
http://listverse.com/2010/09/23/10-words-that-cant-be-translated-to-english/
1.Wabi-Sabi
Language: Japanese
Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”
2.Torschlusspanik
Language: German
Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.” This partly explains why so many older people wish to ‘recapture their youth’ – in order to try re-establish their, perhaps, passed opportunities.
3.L’appel du vide
Language: French
“The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.
4.Ya’aburnee
Language: Arabic
Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person, because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
5.Saudade
Language: Portuguese
One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love, and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.
6.Mamihlapinatapai
Language: Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego, an archipelago off the coast of South America)
“The wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start.” This explains so much for my failures with women.
7.Hygge
Hygge is something we all want all the time – but seldom have. It is a Danish word meaning a “complete absence of anything annoying, irritating or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle and soothing things”. It is especially associated with Christmas time, grilling Danish sausage on long summer evenings and sitting around lit candles on a rainy night. What an amazing word
8.Kyoikumama
No doubt we are all familiar with the stereotype of Japanese mothers who push their children far too hard when it comes to schoolwork. Well, so have the Japanese; they even have a word for it: kyoikumama. Literally translated this means “education mother”. Kuoikumama can be seen in many Japanese movies, literature and, despite western nations having similar parents these days, it does not have a word exactly like it in English.
9.Uitwaaien
Literally, this Dutch word means to walk in the wind, but in the more figurative (and commonly used) sense, it means to take a brief break in the country side to clear one’s head. It is amazing that one word needs so many in English to make the same sense. In fact, it is so amazing that I might need to take an uitwaaien before I continue on with this list!
10.Tingo
This is a word that hopefully few of us would need to use. It comes from Easter Island and it means a person who borrows things from a friend’s house one by one until there is nothing left. I guess the closest thing we could use in English would be “thief”, but then, usually, a thief is not a friend to begin with. Perhaps this is a particularly common problem in Easter Island
