Language is more than words - Part 2

November 10, 2023

In part 1, we looked at the different ways of greeting others across the world. Now let’s look at more language without words!

Darwin claimed that humans have six universal facial expressions to communicate happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger. But is that really true? Recent research by Glasgow University has actually shown that different cultures express their emotions using different facial expressions. For example, a European will often express and recognise an emotion by the movement of the mouth, whereas Asian cultures tend to express and recognise strong emotion with eye activity.

But what about expressing emotions through text? We might want to do this if we are sending a private message on busuu, or using the busuutalk text chat. Interestingly, expression of emotions via emoticons also varies between cultures, but is largely based on the same differences involved in facial expressions:

  • European emoticons show differences in the mouth, for example 🙂 and 😮
  • Asian emoticons focus more on the eyes, for example (^_^) and (o.o)

Why not try this out next time you send a busuu private message or chat in busuutalk?

Have you noticed that facial expressions and emoticons vary between cultures? Do you think you express your emotions more with your eyes or mouth? Share your opinion by leaving a comment below.

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