People in different countries speak different languages. But is there a lanuage that can be understood by everyone in the world ? Emojis might be the first truly universal (通用的) language.
Emojis are a kind of special language. Pictures are used to put meaning across, A group called the Unicode Consortium is in charge of choosing official (官方的) emojis. It has added new emojis every year since 2014. These new emojis do not come out of nowhere. They come from what people think about, like and care about.
Emojis can be used to represent (代表) different groups of people. In 2015, emoji faces with different skin tones (肤色) were added. In 2016, different jobs were added, such as doctor, police officer and painter along with female versions of these jobs, This year, emojis of disabled people were added, including emojis of blind people and people in wheel chairs.
But there is also more to emojis. They can also refer to pop culture and new cultural trends. New emojis in 2019 have included several animals, such as sloths (树懒) and flamingos (火烈鸟). These animals are not very common, but are known to many people. For example, sloths have become popular thanks to the 2016 film Zootopia (《疯狂动物城》). Many fashion designers have included flamingos in their designs in recent years. This animal makes people feel like they're on a tropical (热带) vacation.
It seems that emojis are a mirror of the world we live in. It will be interesting to see how they change and grow in the years to come.
