What's "Shovel" in Japanese?

I asked for a "shovel" at my local home & garden store and was presented with a gardening trowel. But シャベル shows up in Japanese dictionaries as "shovel," and Google image results for シャベル are overwhelmingly of large, long-handled shovels. What gives?

todasan8 writes:

What's the difference between シャベル and スコップ?

Q&A: When is it OK to Laugh?

Thank heaven the Internet is here to help solve the little insecurities we face each day...

Q: When I watch TV with my little sister, we laugh at different parts of the show. My sister makes fun of me and says, "Your timing is off!" At the time I just got angry and said, "No, you're off!" ...but, there isn't a standard for when to laugh at a TV show, right? We're free to laugh at whatever part we want, right?

Q&A: Wifely Duties

Uh oh! Sounds like there's some trouble in the Yamada home!

Is it just my wife, or...?
After dating for four months, my wife and I got married in July. So, here's my question: When you go to work, does your wife send you off from the entryway, and does she meet you there after work? We've been living together since May, but she never sends me off or meets me at the door when I come home. And when your wife does laundry, does she fold the clothes and put them away in the dresser? My wife folds the clothes but doesn't put them away.

Q&A: Ban-gohan or Yoru-gohan?

Today we explore a deep mystery of the Japanese language. What is the correct name for dinner?!
(...er, that'd be "supper" for many of our non-American readers.)

yesfit99 writes:

Is the correct Japanese word for the evening meal 晩ご飯 (ban gohan) or 夜ご飯 (yoru gohan)?

Ever since I was a kid, I always said ban gohan, but recently it seems like everyone on TV is calling it yoru gohan. At first I just thought it was stupid idols who don't know proper Japanese, but then I heard some pretty big-name celebrities saying yoru gohan, too.

Q&A: At Least ALTs Do Work in Korea

Typical 2channel ALT thread banter:

"JETs are a waste of tax money; they can even invite their spouses to live with them tax-free and then our tax money pays for medical care when the spouse gets sick...

Q&A: Are ALTs Really Necessary?

For two years an anonymous Japanese female kept meticulous blog reports of the ALT(s) living in the apartment above her. Most of them are inflammatory. But whether you think that the blogger's entries are just over-the-top rage explosions (and they are), or that the ALTs she writes about have just made poor choices of action (and they have), this blog is a prime example of the negative image ALTs and foreigners in Japan garner.

Without further ado:

Q&A: Facts About Runaways

Remember when Q&A introduced a latent, once media-frenzied issue of teen country girls running away from home and going to live in the city? And you thought, "Yeah, that's not for real."? And so did one of the helpful answer people in the original thread? Well, you're probably right. But according to some random, very unscientific Internet survey with a questionable sample, there's still a less dramatic basis for these stories.

Q&A: Changing Jobs

How old is too old to be looking for new work? Traditional Japanese thinking says that people should only be hired for a job once, right after they complete their education, and the company and employee should loyally support each other until retirement. It doesn't always work that way, but Chiebukuro is here to tell you how old's too old when you're thinking about changing jobs.

Q&A: Osaka Nampa Master

Nampa is the Japanese term for guys picking up on girls in public locations, usually with the sole aim of getting them into bed. A whole subculture has sprung up around the word, and akin to titles like "How to Talk to Women" and "How to Make Someone Fall in Love With You in 6.7 Seconds" in English bookstores and across English webpages, "How to Nampa" is a term probably every magazine with a 20-something male target audience in Japan has published articles about.

Q&A: Dating Younger Men

Last time on Q&A, we talked about lecherous old men and how they will pay young women to do terrible things like write friendly e-mails for money in this country. Today let's turn the tables a bit and look at a self-help guide for Japanese women hoping to make it with a younger guy.

Q&A: Runaway

This guy saw some programs on TV about underage girls who run away from home, a social issue that gets significant media attention in Japan, and now he's got some questions about them. It's for research purposes. Purely out of curiosity. Promise.

Q&A: Look it Up Yourself

In today's Q&A, we learn, yet again, that the Internet makes people lazy. And those lazy people are a driving source of fuel for other people to get spiteful and go out of their way to write long, angry rants. Apparently this fact of Internet-life applies no matter what language you use.

Let's get right down to our venting!

Q&A: Daddy Long Legs

Welcome to the first installment of our Q&A series.

Today we hear from a young woman who received monthly bank transfers over 6 years from an absolute stranger she met over the Internet in exchange for sending him daily diary entries. After breaking off communication with the man, she wonders if she should feel obligated to repay the money back to him even though he hasn't asked her to.

Let's hear what the Internet has to say!

Q&A: Introduction

I admit it. I have a guilty pleasure: I like reading the Japanese version of Yahoo! Answers, or Yahoo! Chiebukuro. Judging from the content quality of its English counterpart, I'm afraid this admission speaks volumes about the level I operate on when using Japanese. It's probably akin to an ESL learner proudly indicating reruns of the Jerry Springer show as her favorite leisure activity.