@Xeronoia Actually, most honorifics don't have an English counterpart. The common honorific "san" is comparable to Mr./Mrs./Miss, but those English counterparts have different connotations. In English, calling somebody "Mr." generally means that you are either strangers or that the person is of a higher status for you. The honorific "san" is just common courtesy in Japan. "Chan" and "kun" have no English counterparts other than giving somebody a nickname. "Sama" is often compared to "Lord," but is more versatile than the English counterpart; it is essentially used any time one would wish to express high levels of respect and does not necessarily imply nobility like the English "Lord/Lady." And finally the senpai-kouhai relationship does not even exist in the west as it does in Japan, so the words are pretty much without equivalents. One could say "upperclassman," but while this word describes the physical relationship, it implies none of the social connotations that come with the word "senpai."
As I said, most English honorifics are outdated and no longer in use. English is a very old language, with different manners of speech depending on the area, and hardly restricted to modern America or England. Lord and Lady and all that is just what people remember from their medieval times novels about knights and dragons.
Some honorifics are still around but no longer used in anything resembling the manner they originally were, too. Esquire, for example, would originally be used to address a person of higher social rank than yourself but didn't have a more specific title. Now, it's simply used as a way of politely addressing an adult male in the UK or a certified attorney in the US.
Also, claiming that the senpai-kouhai relationship doesn't exist in the west is a gross exaggeration, though it is certainly far far less common, and I suspect a bit of special snowflaking japanese culture.
