Foreign Word of the Day: Shouganai

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Japanese, that word of the day is “shouganai” (しょうがない).  There are actually two common phrases of similar meaning here.  One is “shouganai”, which is of colloquial usage, and the other is “shikata ga nai” (仕方がない), which is more formal.  “Shikata ga nai” could be even more formal by using the formal negative conjugation, “aru”, and saying, “Shikata ga arimasen” (仕方がありません).  Translating these directly into English, we get “There is no way”, or “There is no means.”  Idiomatically, however, it means much more than that.  It is understood that since nothing can be done about it, there is no point worrying or fretting, and to just let it be, or surrender to it.