A recent study indicates that Americans and Japanese read body language and facial expressions differently — in particular, that Americans pay attention to the mouth, while Japanese focus on the eyes (which, in a culture where outward expression of emotion is sometimes frowned upon, are harder to mask).
Which may explain the distinction in American vs Japanese emoticons. Americans tend to do those little sideways things with the mouth being a key point, while Japanese are horizontal and zero in on the, well, eyes, leaving the mouth more as a spaceholder.
Happy Face: 🙂 vs. ^_^
Sad Face: 🙁 vs. ;_;
That makes so much sense …
(via BoingBoing)
41 view(s)
My roomie uses the Japanese style, which she picked up playing the Final Fantasy MMO (with a large Japanese player base). Sometimes I have to ask her to explain what they mean.
Some sources:
http://www.iit.edu/~jfas/articles/animeemoticons.html (has some great anime alongside to demonstrate what’s being shown)
http://www.anikaos.com/japanese_emoticons.html
http://club.pep.ne.jp/~hiroette/en/facemarks/
I see the following (for confused) quite often on the CoX chats:
O_o
I saw that one used in CoH, but I interpreted it differently. I assumed it was more along the line of disbelief or skepticism, as in raising an eyebrow, or alternatively, a cartoon character’s face going “Ploink!” when something particularly bizarre has occurred.
I’m really not explaining myself well here. I can’t seem to put it into words. Hopefully you can visualize what I mean. 🙂
Well, “confused” and “ploink” aren’t too far off. 🙂