What kind of icons do you use in your e-mails?
In Korea, we use "k k k" which is not "kill kill kill" or "Ku Klux Klan" but for a sound of laughing. We also use "^^" for smiling eyebrows, and ^^; for smiling and sweating (when you are smiling but little embarrased). I heard "555" means "ha ha ha" in Thailand, and 555+ means "loud laughing". I also heard @+ means "see you" in France.
Right icons deliver friendly feelings while mis-interpreted icons can cause a serious misunderstanding. What kind of icons do you use for e-mails in your country?
Clarification added November 18, 2008:
Oh...I am not talking about business e-mails. I'd like to know which icons people use in each country when friends exchange e-mails.
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Heather V.
Tutor, Teacher, FR-EN Translator, Editor and Trivia Writer
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I have always tried not to use them but the risk is that my brand of humor does not come through! Whenever I get to speak to someone with whom I've corresponded for years, they always say my voice is funnier than they'd imagined.
There are lots of acronyms in French that are current now. Well, they were a few years back. CAD means, not Computer Assisted Design but, c'est a dire? In contemporary speech, that's the equivalent of saying, 'like what?' or 'what do you mean?' or a ruder version which many English speakers are thinking of right now.
I love the acronym MDR meaning Mort de rire because it's the French version of LOL or ROTFL and yet I don't like those in English.
I guess I'm very picky. Something that annoys me is that sometimes someone will say something pretty rude and then excuse themselves with a LOL or something.
When chat functions began to become popular in France, some people who didn't write often (lots of French people must have been traumatized by perfectionist teachers criticizing them, my personal theory only) so they'd have these interesting methods of indicating they were smiling like writing it out 'sourire'.
Actually I'm sounding rather petty about it. I would never criticize someone else's usage but only modify my own.
Peter B. G.
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I do use the occasional conventional smilie e.g. :) or :/) when communicating with people I know very well (including work colleagues). The character combinations you showed have no meaning to me and I would not use them in an email.
On the whole an email should look professional I have a telephone icon alongside my telephone number and hyperlinks to my website & LinkedIn profile.
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Do words not work?????????????
come in and close the door, here, sit near the fire and tell us all about yourself, take your time, when god made it he made loads...
James Hayes MBA
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Dave M.
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If it's business, no icons should be used. Looks unprofessional...
Josh C.
Director of Operations at Web Industries, and Decent Little League Coach
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Joshua,
I don't use them except in fun emails between friends. With customers, no way. I do include my company logo in my signature.
Josh.
