The Linguist

28 The Linguist Vol/62 No/2 thelinguist.uberflip.com OPINION & COMMENT The challenges of translating and using emojis professionally Emojis are part of our everyday language now, and their use is expanding all the time. Six billion emojis are sent and received each day, with 92% of internet users regularly using emojis to communicate. So what are some of the conundrums this brings to linguists across the industry? A few years ago, I was translating marketing text for a cosmetics brand. It was great to get something edgy, away from the bland corporate correctness that I often worked on. They sold their products online via an app, which was also pretty edgy at the time. Things were going well and repeat requests came in from the agency handling their translation requirements. The next one included emojis – a nice addition! It added an informal buzz but raised a new challenge. Had I understood the intentions of the source material and how should I deal with this? My biggest dilemma was the poomoji . Anyone caring for children soon has their fill of jokes about poo, and this was a cosmetics brand. Why would anyone want to mix the two?! I thought it lowered the tone and undermined my efforts to convey a message that was appealing and made customers feel good about their choices. I couldn't ignore it – it was already part of their French content – so I commented about how direct (and gross) it was. The client pushed back. I learnt that my age and life experiences affected how I viewed the message. The client thought it engaged well with their audience. I thought it could alienate some potential clients. My kids howled with laughter. "Trust you to be so analytical, Mum! Just do it!" This aside, it is wise to weigh up the risks of emojis not translating well between languages and cultures. Customer perceptions are what count, so if the translator thinks there is any chance of an emoji creating a negative reaction, their cultural expertise and sense of caution should win any debate. In this case, the poomoji had to stay, but this then shaped the language I used in the sentence. Although the emoji itself didn't need translating, my message in English needed to work around the connotations. I felt annoyingly directed by a symbol. I wanted to keep more nuance in my choice of words, to make the text more adaptable and engage with various types of clients. Some of my options were taken away by the emoji. I wanted to convey potential bad outcomes for skincare with terms like 'shortcuts', 'lazy routines' and 'old attitudes', rather than words that resonated with poo. In the end, I had to lighten up and put the client back in first place, but I saw their brand differently as a result. An emoji between colleagues These days I am part of a large multinational company where systems and roles are very defined. It's both challenging and restricting. Now I love emojis when messaging colleagues; they make boring or hard stuff happier. In multilingual environments, they can communicate things better and more quickly than fumbled attempts to use a foreign language. They build bridges between distant colleagues, since they are relatable emotions that reduce the need for words. A survey of 1,000 people across three continents revealed many positives about using emojis. 1 Used well, they indicate a more likeable and empathetic person, even RIDING THE EMOJI ROLLERCOASTER KATE TROTMAN

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