Emoji (絵文字)

Teriyaki. Samurai. Koi. Origami. There are a lot of words in the English language that come from Japanese origin (more than any other Asian language, as Chinese words can be counted on one hand like "wuxu"), and they've been incorporated into the American culture: people go to sushi and ramen restaurants, kids attend karate class. One word, though, that I didn't know came from Japanese until recently, has probably taken over as most relevant to this generation of young people and any smartphone user: An emoji. 

Emoji in Japanese is actually pronounced with a short "e," not the long E that Americans commonly prounounce it as, and the kanji letters are broken down to meat "picture," and then "word." So literally, a picture of a word. It's really interesting because Kanji, back when it was developed thousands of years ago by scholars, aimed to depict things as they were actually shaped, like the word for fish actually looks like a fish (魚), and now emojis are sort of bringing that back, like a retro-style version of it. Emojis are actually frequently mistaken with emoticons, as that's more of a picutre done using punctuation marks, like :). Not the same at all, and can't get the helpful brown color background of the famous poop emoji. 

I personally never used emojis until last year, never thought it was worthwhile and stuck to traditional writing and elaborate pose, I guess, I guess I'm an old-school type of book reader, no fluffs and frills, but I think I might be behind on the times. Everyone uses them, to the point I feel it's almost impolite not to use them. My girlfriend loves using them, and every message will include something, whether it's a heart, dancing, or.....apparently a very famous emoji, the poop emoji. 

I personally had never heard of the poop emoji, but I have to admit I was drawn to it the first time I saw it, which is perhaps part of its appeal. It's a poop-shaped brown object with a smiling face, almost like the poop knows it's poop but is happy about it, not apologetic about it. No one would have ever associated "poop" with "happy," but this emoji totally turns it into a cool thing. The story of the emoji actually sis detailed online: it started in Japan in the 1990's and then was adopted by Google in 2008 and used on its smartphones. At first it came without the smiley face on the poop and instead flies buzzing around the poop, which is pretty funny as well. Amazingly, it was almost not included in smartphones because it was "too offensive," but the people at Google were apparently in touch with society enough to know that it was funny, and it became a big hit. Out of all the emojis I have ever used, that emoji I've definitely used more than any other one, and probably more than 50% of the emojis I've used are that one. (I just write a whole chain of them, the more the merrier I guess). 

What's my stance now on using emojis? I guess I've softened my stance on them, although I would never use them on an official email for lawyer business or anything, but they're definitely interesting and spice up the texting world. Maybe that's what I was missing during my online dating years, was the use of these emojis! What have I been missing! Ahhhh!!!!!! I still don't think I would initiate the first move on a text with an emoji, and I'd wait for the other person to establish the practice of using emojis before I followed suit, for fear of alienation and/or thinking that I was not mature enough/ professional enough. 

Interesting note about grandpa (continued from last post): Grandpa has never used an emoji to express himself. 

If I were to create an emoji of my girlfriend, it would be her shaking with excitement called the "penguin shuffle" emoji. Or a piece of cheese with a smiley face. (they probably have one already) 

Fantasize on, 

Robert Yan