新概念雙語：職場：Emoji表情成為辦公室交流的雙刃劍

We know that in public speaking, correct use of gestures will help enhance our messages. Emojis that flourish in our daily non-verbal communication can serve this function too, if they are employed properly.

日常生活交流中，準確使用肢體語言能有效加強我們的交流能力。Emoji 表情如果恰當運用，在非口語表達中也可以起到相似的作用。

In recent years, I’ve noticed with amazement how emoticons and smiley faces have crept into my office life. Supervisors start the day with them as they issue instructions on social messaging app WeChat. Staff who are mostly in their late 20s and 30s respond with a wild variety of emojis that laugh, weep, blush or swagger. Even the secretary has instilled a personal note in her daily reminder to all for the submission of the next day’s work plan, with an icon of a red rose.

近幾年，我注意到各種表情和微笑是如何走進我們辦公室生活的。公司主管在聊天軟件微信中分配工作說明時會用一些Emoji 表情以顯得親切。二三十歲的員工也會使用各種豐富的表情，例如大笑、哭泣、害羞、傲慢等表情。甚至秘書在制作第二天的工作計劃時也會加紅玫瑰的表情。

At first I’d typed:) or :( to indicate what I felt in my e-mails and messages to colleagues. They worked like arms and hands in a speech that helped me emphasize a point or ensure what I said was not misunderstood. But the colons and parentheses have quickly fallen from favor, with the rise of emojis that best encapsulates the basic communication tenet that a picture is worth a thousand words.

一開始我在鍵盤上輸入：比如我想在郵件或者信息中表達出我對同事的好感時。Emoji 表情就像我的左膀右臂，他們總是幫助我不要忘記重點，或者確保我說的話沒有被人誤解。但是分號或者括號相比生動有趣的Emoji 表情就顯得呆板了很多，因為Emoji 表情生動地囊括了基本交流中的很多語言。

For laughter, users can pick a face with a smile, snicker or giggle and other expressions that are too complex for a simple :) to show. The icons could also render words unnecessary in certain conversations. Last week, netizens watched two pandas mating in southwestern China and bemoaned their performance as they fell behind the record set by another pair last year. We also talked about it on WeChat, which could probably boil down to just a sweating face with raised eyebrows, which was posted by a co-worker at the end of the discussion.

比如說笑，我們可以選用Emoji 表情中的微笑、竊笑、咯咯大笑或者其他的豐富表情。上周，市民在中國西南地區(qū)看到一對熊貓交配的場面，很多人在感慨熊貓啪啪啪時長記錄沒有超越去年那對熊貓。這段視頻在網(wǎng)上傳得沸沸揚揚，這些討論歸結(jié)下來就可以概括為瞠目結(jié)舌和大開眼界。

But emojis, especially those pictures with Chinese characters, are not for everybody and most probably not appropriate for business communication.

但是emoji表情，尤其是包含著中國字符的表情圖片并不適合每個人，并且在商業(yè)交談中不是很合適。

Chinese emoji users are predominantly young people led by millennials who send the most emojis per day, according to Tencent Holdings Ltd, one of the most popular providers of social media including WeChat in China. In comparison, users aged 40 or older account for only a small fraction of emoji fans and they sent an emoji every three days.

根據(jù)包括微信在內(nèi)的聊天軟件的供應公司騰訊公司調(diào)查，中國emoji表情用戶主要是00后的年輕人，他們每天使用emoji表情。相比較而言，40多歲的用戶只占了emoji表情用戶的一小部分，他們每三天才用一次emoji表情。

Tencent found that in 2014, the top five most-used emojis were a wicked smile, anger, kissing, head beating and melancholy. Emojis favored by men tend to be nerdy and dorky while women prefer "cutesy" icons.

2014年，騰訊調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，最受歡迎的emoji表情是邪惡的笑、生氣、親吻、敲頭和悲哀。男性常用的表情一般比較呆笨，而女性喜歡可愛的表情。

It’s a trend that domestic emoji developers have noted and marketed as they focus on products that are vivid, exaggerated and reflect the ethos of youthful, restless and hormonal internet users.

不難看出，國內(nèi)emoji表情的開發(fā)者已經(jīng)注意到和把市場定位在生動、夸張的表情符號上，這些恰恰能表達出網(wǎng)絡用戶的朝氣蓬勃、躁動不安以及荷爾蒙高漲的特點。

Older users who want to be "on trend" may sometimes find they’re courting embarrassment. Once I sent a new emoji with Chinese characters "I’m panicky" when we discussed a project that could fail, one of the colleagues quickly pointed out, " Even you’re using it!"

一些年長點兒的用戶想趕時髦，而恰恰時不時遭遇尷尬。一次我和同事在討論一個可能失敗的項目時，我用了中文字符表情，“嚇死寶寶了”，一個同事很快回復說，“你都在用這個啊!”

And often, people disagree on what certain emojis were supposed to represent. When writing this article, I’ve checked with several colleagues on the meanings of some emoji stored in our cellphones, and we were surprised to realize how our understanding could differ from each other and from the emoji’s actual intent.

時常人們會對emoji要表達的含義持有不同的觀點。寫這篇文章時，我查看了幾個同事在手機里保存的一些emoji表情的含義。我們很驚訝地發(fā)現(xiàn)我們對emoji表情的理解和它的本意是大不一樣的。

The importance of knowing what it means hit home last Friday morning, when I sent what I assumed as a sign of prayer to a working mom who was applying for leave because her son was sick. She texted back: "The emoji technically represents a high-five, although we commonly take it as hands clasped in prayer."

上周五早晨，我意識到了了解emoji表情本意的重要性。一位在職媽媽想請假照看自己生病的兒子，我發(fā)了一個想表達祈禱的表情給她。她回復我說：“這個表情是表達擊掌慶賀，盡管我們經(jīng)常用這個雙手合十表達祈禱”。