As we celebrate National Languages Month in the Philippines this August, we wish to offer these thoughts on one of the important and urgent goals of languages: understanding.

In an article entitled “Forget Words, a Lot of Millennials Say GIFs and Emojis Communicate Their Thoughts Better Than English”, published in Time Magazine last June 27, 2017, Katy Steinmetz presented a survey conducted by Harris Poll and commissioned by Tenor, the mobile GIF-sharing platform. More than 2,000 U.S. adults were interviewed in May. Of these, about 1,400 said they use such visuals in text or mobile messaging. It also showed that 36% of millennials, ages 18 to 34, who use “visual expressions” such as emojis, GIFs and stickers, claim that these images communicate their thoughts and feelings better than words do. When the question was asked with a slightly different wording — whether these images help people understand “the thoughts and feelings I’m trying to communicate” better than words alone — almost 80% agreed… More than half of the people of all ages said they use emojis and GIFs in messages to make people laugh, to lighten their mood and because they “make conversations more fun.” Read more…