Talk about Culture: Emojis

When we did not have internet or cell phones, we relied on regular telephones and letters to exchange the news. Yet, now we have numerous ways to quickly exchange the news with each other.

How do you send the news to your family, friends, and other colleagues? In Korea, a messenger called Kakao Talk is the most popular, and other messaging platforms, such as Line, Instagram, Facebook, and WeChat, are also used.

These messaging platforms are very useful in that regardless of the time or place, you can quickly communicate with others.

However, there are also some disadvantages of using those platforms. One of the disadvantages of using those messengers is that since you are talking to the person directly, sometimes it is difficult to fully understand the other person’s feelings. Therefore, Koreans use special “emoticons (emojis)” to express their feelings or emotions when using messenger applications.

The most popular emoji among Koreans are smiley expressions such as ‘^^ (smiley eyes)’ or crying expressions such as ‘ㅠㅠ (tears),’ and these are used in the message to convey their feelings.

Non-facial expressions, such as ‘ㅋㅋㅋ (giggles)’ and ‘ㅎㅎㅎ (hahaha)’ are also used to express laughter, and consonants like ‘ㄷㄷㄷ (shaking)’ are used to express fear. Don’t you have similar expressions that are only used in text messages?

What is the most popular emoji in your country?

Let’s talk about emojis/emoticons used in your culture. When do you use them and what do they mean?