A guide to texting in Japanese

When I was first in Japan, I was texting a female friend who was studying in the same class as me. I told her that I had a Japanese exam coming up. I was expecting a 頑張れ ganbare message but instead I got a smiling poo emoji.

Err…thanks but no thanks, I thought.

Luckily I had another friend on hand to helpfully explain to me that young women sometimes use the poo emoji as a humorous way to say “good luck.” The connection between the two words may seem tenuous but it all comes down to a homophone. The word うんこ has the sound うん in it which is the same sound that is found in the kanji for luck (運 also read, うん).

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