@Mahnax This may not be an "English Culture" site, but if a similar question about gestures was marginally word-related (e.g., if someone asked what "flipping the bird" meant), it probably would not be marked as off topic. You may be right that permitting this question would encourage other users to post off-topic questions, but we could at least have the user move their question to chat, instead.

And if you succeed, you must look like someone with neurological damage.

@TheodoreBroda Can you provide any source for a link between culture and finger-counting?

@Robusto My guess would be surgically severing a tendon in your hand. Otherwise, it seems impossible.

There is no reason to allow questions here simply because there is no other home for them.

> If a gesture is typoical for a language, then it is not off topic.

I nominate "typoical" as an excellent typo. Kind of a meta-typo, in fact.

@Robusto Try 15243 for ascending and 14523 for descending.

Neeever mind.

@tchrist That's not how the OP suggested it be done.

But it’s much more fun, and easier.

@Mahnax This article mentions it. In fact, the "thumb as first number in finger counting" was used as a plot device in the film Inglourious Basterds.

To summarise, @TheodoreBroda, it's off-topic. In the past we've been strict about that, and I see no reason to end that tradition.

@TheodoreBroda Parents.SE

@tchrist If you spun it right, you might just be able to pull it off.

On another note, my Japanese coworker recommended that I learn Japanese.

And my Colombian coworker has done the same, but for Spanish.

@Mahnax SWR: What is the word that means counting using 12345 instead of using 23451 or 15243?

@tchrist Parents.SE? The question seems much more relevant to EL&U than to parenting. But I am not familiar with that sister site, so who knows?

Iron is dead.

@Robusto Is it difficult to learn to write? I've seen people complain about the complexity of mixing hiragana, kanji, and katakana all in the same sentence.

@tchrist You mean the element, or the device you use for pressing your trousers?

@Mahnax You get used to it.

It's actually a lot of fun to write.

@Robusto Like most things, I would suppose. It would be very cool to learn a language with a non-roman script.

I recommend getting a fude and an expensive "well" and real sumi.

@Robusto I don't have any trouble reading Japanese words written in katakana script, as almost all are ultimately English in origin. Plus, its fun to use a Japanese syllabary.

@Mahnax It's all the way cool.

@Mahnax What if the Japanese is written in romaji?

@TheodoreBroda See, I have to say that is the hardest thing for me in Japanese. Because the transliterations are frequently not even close to the English word, and it slows you way down.

More ground we've covered here. Where were you three years ago?

SWR: What is the word that means a very stupid nephew who impudently counts using 23451 or 15243 instead of using the approved 12345 like all whose IQ > room temperature in ℉ use?

@TheodoreBroda "Always the contrarian…"

@Mahnax To which the only possible reply is: "I am not!"

Just teasing, of course. Japanese is not traditionally written in romaji, to my knowledge.

@Mahnax No. It very seldom is, at least among Japanese.

@Robusto As I thought.

They use Romaji for foreign words that can't be rendered even in katakana.

They would never write Japanese words that way, except possibly to cater to a foreign student.

My coworker says I can already pronounce the "r" in arigato fairly well, so that's a start.

@Mahnax Japanese pronunciation is cake. You have to have an ear, of course, to hear the phonemes. Also you have to learn how to pronounce the morae (beats), because it's an isochronous language.

That question I linked discusses reading in Japanese.

@Robusto I like the strict system of syllables; Japanese always sounds poetic.

Not if someone's yelling at you in it. ^_^

If I were to learn Japanese, I doubt I could ever learn to read, though. Twenty-six letters and a few punctuation characters are more than enough for me.

You both are plenty smart enough to learn to read Japanese.

AFK for a trip to the store.

@Robusto out of context that sounds... provocative