Emoji connotations on WeChat?

[mungouk]

I've recently started using WeChat in earnest, mainly with a bunch of Chinese teachers I'm studying with on a course here in Thailand.

 

It seems that their interpretations of emoji on WeChat don't quite match with mine... for example, I was just told that ?means "interesting" whereas ?is more appropriate for indicating "happy", and most of them seem to be using ?for thinking things are funny (I think — WeChat's built-in emojis don't entirely match those on my mac/iPhone)... possibly due to the custom of females covering their mouths when they laugh?  (The teachers are all female.)

 

Has anyone else encountered this?  I'm starting to feel like I'm in a minefield full of faux pas at the moment! ?

[Publius]

If you don't know which emoji to use, just use 捂脸. It's the Swiss Army knife of all emojis.

[SunnySideUp]

I was told the normal standard smiley I used (--> ? ) was not in fact a smiling emoji expressing happiness, but instead a fake smile. "Correct" would have been any of these here: ???

[Shelley]

I don't know if its my settings or something else but a lot of the examples are showing as a square (the symbol for no idea what you mean)

 

[SunnySideUp]

Hi Shelley,

here's how it's showing up for me...

 

I also can't see Mungouk's emoji ("using ... for thinking")

[889]

On Windows, for these two I get black-and-white placeholder faces instead of the actual emojis: ??

 

And on two Android devices, I get squares instead of these two faces: ? ?

[Shelley]

For me I can see your first example and on android I can see all except for one in mungouk's post 

7 hours ago, mungouk said:

seem to be using ?for thinking things are funny

 

and the second to last one in your post 889.

[889]

Hmmm. On both Android and Windows I don't seem to be able to add any edits following an emoji. Maybe something needs fixing. ?️

 

In any event, check what emojis show on the edit box dropdown when you click the emoji symbol on the taskbar. On Windows I get a lot of those black-and-white placeholders.

[abcdefg]

7 hours ago, SunnySideUp said:

I was told the normal standard smiley I used (--> ? ) was not in fact a smiling emoji expressing happiness, but instead a fake smile. "Correct" would have been any of these here: ???

 

So confusing! I try to use the damned things as little as possible. 

 

Quote

Has anyone else encountered this?  I'm starting to feel like I'm in a minefield full of faux pas at the moment! ?

 

Yes. I tend to finally figure this stuff out a few months after they go out of fashion. 

 

 

[mungouk]

Here's what I'm seeing in my post.  Presumably @roddy would tell us to use the built-in emojis rather than typing them on our devices...?

 

 

9 hours ago, SunnySideUp said:

Mungouk's emoji ("using ... for thinking")

 

Apparently Emojipedia calls it "Face With Hand Over Mouth" but I've no idea how to type the native version on the forum.

This is what the ladies here seem to be using for laughing/humour (either that or just writing 哈哈哈).

 

 

 

 

[Jim]

More importantly, have you got the frog and horse dancing with pompoms?

[roddy]

5 hours ago, mungouk said:

Presumably @roddy would tell us to use the built-in emojis rather than typing them on our devices...?

Roddy is happily ambivalent on the matter. 

[Alex_Hart]

It's all about the stickers! Pulling out a cool new sticker in a group chat is the student equivalent to pulling a bottle of 茅台酒 out with a bunch of uncles.

 

I think Sunny's understanding is closer regarding the  微笑 smile - it's often pretty sarcastic among young people. For people in their 20s and 30s, it can mean something like "your joke isn't funny", "I'm annoyed at you", or "I'm not really interested in this conversation". People in their 40s/50s seem to use it more often though, e.g. my teachers use it all the time, as does my partner's mom.
 

Around New Year, there was a way to see "annual statistics" on WeChat and I seem to recall it showing something like this, breaking down smilies by age group:

Besides the thumbs up, my friends use all of these often to show amusement. 

 

I think that blushing smile (愉快, next to 愉笑 and 白眼)  is used more often to just mean "happiness" instead of the normal smile. 

 

 

[NinKenDo]

This is a pretty good post going over some super intro stuff. Once you've got your head around this, just talk alot on WeChat and you quickly develop a feel for things.

 

One of the most frustrating things since I started using WeChat is that I can't use this handsome chap elsewhere.

 

[abcdefg]

Talking on the phone, local people sometimes think I'm Chinese, just from a different province. But two minutes sending Weixin 微信 messages back and forth, and the cat is out of the bag. My emojis are all wrong. (But thanks to the resources in this thread, I can study up some and maybe improve.) 

 

"Emoji use" needs to be part of HSK 7. 

[Guest realmayo]

I'm a big fan of the military guy with the cigar, three of those in a row can be pretty punchy, but it's all a bluff really cos I don't know what it means.

[Jim]

9 hours ago, realmayo said:

I'm a big fan of the military guy with the cigar, three of those in a row can be pretty punchy, but it's all a bluff really cos I don't know what it means.

Me too, I tend to use it when I've said something a bit cheeky or smug, sort of 得意 but lets them know you're playing. God knows if that's the intention.

[Tomsima]

18 hours ago, Jim said:

More importantly, have you got the frog and horse dancing with pompoms?

 

yes, yes i do. what would i do without them.

 

Also highly recommended is 品味遵義小紅軍, that lil guy saying 要得 instead of 好的 has got me out of many sticky situations

[SunnySideUp]

@Tomsima
Slightly off topic re emojis, but what's the difference between 好的 and 要得？Don't both mean good, fine, OK?

[Tomsima]

@SunnySideUp 要得 is the dialect variant of 好的 used in 四川話, and is said with different tones to 普通話. Its more 'country bumpkin' than the boring 好的, and especially when its a 外國人 using it, people seem to think its pretty funny