Those crazy Japanese again. I´am not sure why I love them that much but it probably has something to do with the fact that they are always good for a surprise (or two). I never thought they would use different smileys until I found this Japanese smileys website.
The website explains the difference between Japanese and western smileys:
“Apparently, Japanese Smileys(Emoticons) are read vertically while eastern Smileys(Emoticons) are read horizontally. And Japanese Smileys have more variation than eastern ones. I think the reason is that while American(alphabet) letters in computer are 1 byte, Japanese letters in computer are 2 bytes, so Japanese letters can have more characters.”
Most look simply crazy to me, they have smileys with 15 and more letters. The translation is sometimes funny as well. (Making a promise by liking little fingers with each other < — What the hell does that mean ?)
If you’ve got some time to spare take a look and enjoy the site. Maybe you find one or two that are useful for you.
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Here is another page explaining Asian Smileys: http://www.todayinchina.com/?p=74
The difference with Western Smileys is quite amazing, the Asian Smileys are so explicit!
\(^_^)/
“Making a promise by liking little fingers with each other < — What the hell does that mean ?”
You know, like pinky promises? Didn’t you ever do those when you were a kid? It’s like a promise that you can’t break ( at least that’s what it means to little kids (^.^).)