"foreign words collected and discussed here have the potential for transforming the way our entire culture sees the world. This mind-altering and culture-shifting side effect of adopting untranslatable words from other languages stems from a phenomenon linguists call "linguistic relativity." :

We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages. The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, thw world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds- and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds. We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significance as we do..- Benjamin Lee Whorf, _Language, Thought and Reality_."

They have a Word for it: a lighthearted lexicon of untranslatable words By Howard Rheingold

thinking about a new label for unstranslatable, Whorfian theory...