Japanese Smileys Don’t Involve Turning Your Head

Whether it be through text messages, IM, or some other form of online communication, it’s pretty common to encounter a smiley or two. Most people are familiar with the standard :) smiley and they even know about :D and :p, but the trouble with these “Western” smileys is that you have to turn your head to really see what they show.

Over in Japan (and possibly the rest of Asia), smileys take on a slightly different form and they don’t involve the turning of heads. They are actually oriented the right way. Is this newsworthy? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, I just wanted to share some of these Japanese smileys with you today.

If you hop on over to NetLingo, you’ll find quite the range of Japanese smileys including the difference between a male (^_^) and female (^.^) smiley, a laughing smiley (^o^), a Cartman-esque angry smiley (>_<), and a sleeping smiley (u_u). Oh, and the one pictured on side there represents being in love (or fear).