Do you speak emoji? If you use a smart phone, the answer is probably yes. Emoji a visual(视觉的) language, It can express ideas and feelings. Are you hungry? Let your friends know by (send) them food emojis, like rice or pizza.
People use emoji a lot. One of the (popular) emojis is the face with tears of joy. It has been used more than 1.8 billion times on Twitter.
Emoji is modern, the idea is old. History shows that we've used symbols as language for about 5, 000 (year). One of the oldest examples of visual language is Egyptian hieroglyphs(象形文字). Ancient Egyptians (begin) using language symbol around 3250 B. C, according to John Darnell. He is expert from Yale University.
Who invented emoji? 1999, the Japanese company NTT Docomo took a heart picture off from its mobile system. As a result, it lost many customers. So Shigetaka Kurita, a designer(设计师), put the heart back. And he made 175 more pictures. He called (they) emoji, the Japanese word for picture characters.
Some people still do not regard(视为) emoji a language, but it does improve our communication. Don't you think so?
