你知道現在有一種工作叫表情符號翻譯員嗎？倫敦一家翻譯公司發現同樣的符號表情在不同國家有不同的含義，因此需要聘請專門的表情符號專家來翻譯，他們希望在2017年到來之前招到一名兼職譯者。

A company in London has advertised for an emoji translator in what is thought to be the first such job worldwide.
倫敦一家公司已經在招募表情符號翻譯者，這應該是世界上第一個這種類型的工作。

The role will involve explaining cross-cultural misunderstandings in the use of the mini pictures, and compiling a monthly trends report.
這份工作包括解釋迷你表情圖片使用中的跨文化差異，以及編寫每月趨勢報告。

Last year, a UK linguist said emoji was the country's fastest-growing language.
一位英國語言學家去年曾表示，表情符號是英國發展最快的語言。

Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Today Translations, needed someone to translate diaries into emojis for one of her clients, but could not find a specialist.
今日翻譯公司的老板尤爾加?奇林斯基尼需要為她的一位客戶找個人，把記事簿翻譯成表情符號，但找不到這方面的專家。

She says software translations can only go so far and a human translator was needed, so the agency posted an online job advert.
她說，翻譯軟件能做的有限，還是需要人工翻譯，因此該公司發布了一則在線招聘廣告。

With more than 30 applications so far, she is hoping to appoint somebody on a freelance basis by the start of 2017, with the potential for it to become a full-time post. Translation jobs will be paid by the word/emoji, while research into the changing trends in emoji usage will be paid at an hourly rate.
到目前為止，該公司已經收到30多份申請，奇林斯基尼希望在2017年到來之前聘用一名兼職譯者，這個崗位也有可能變成全職的。翻譯工作將按表情符號數量支付酬勞，而表情符號使用變化趨勢的研究工作將按小時支付酬勞。

So can emojis be considered a language? No, absolutely not, says Rob Drummond, a senior lecturer in linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University.
那么，可以認為表情符號是一種語言嗎？曼徹斯特大都會大學的語言學高級講師羅博?德拉蒙德認為，當然不行。

He says his test for a language is that you have to be able to translate a full sentence from one to another, with shared meanings - not necessarily fixed, but shared - and emoji meanings vary from person to person.
德拉蒙德說，他檢測一種語言的方法是你必須能將一個完整的句子以相同的意思從一個人傳遞給另一個人，意思可以不固定，但是要有相同的部分。而表情符號的意義因人而異。

"It's an addition to language rather than a language itself," Dr Drummond says.
“與其說表情符號是語言，不如說它是語言的附屬品，”德拉蒙德博士說。

Emojis are more nuanced than words and, like gestures or body language, can add meaning to the text they go alongside.
表情符號傳達的意思比文字更微妙，而且它與手勢和身體語言一樣，可以為旁邊的文字增添意義。

下面來看一些表情符號在不同國家的差異：

Waving hand - You might think this emoji is waving hello or goodbye. Well in China, it has a very specific meaning, along the lines of "bye, you're not my friend any more". Like a middle finger in Europe.
揮手——你可能認為這個表情符號是打招呼或再見的意思。在中國，它放在“再見，你不再是我的朋友”的文字旁有一個非常特殊的意義，就像是歐洲的豎中指手勢一樣。

Poo - In Japan, the words for "poo" and "luck" sound similar, so it's tradition to send your friends a funny "poo" message before an exam or job interview.
便便——在日本，“便便”和“好運”的發音相似，所以在朋友參加考試或工作面試之前，給ta發一個搞笑的“便便”是一種傳統。

Red heart - French speakers use more heart emojis than any other language group, according to a study from last year, bumping even smiley faces off the top spot.
紅心——根據去年的一項研究，講法語的人比講其他語種的人使用心形表情符號的次數更多，甚至把笑臉表情擠下了榜首。

Dancing women - Originally these were Playboy bunnies, and might have been seen as strange to use in a message. But they have evolved to mean having fun with friends - and since emojis were made more diverse, there's a men's version too.
跳舞的女人——起初這些女人就是花花公子的兔女郎，在消息中使用這個表情可能被認為很奇怪。但她們的意思已經發展為與朋友玩樂——因為表情符號變得更加多樣化，現在也有男版的了。

Tears of joy - The most commonly used emoji on the planet, this was the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year for 2015. What does it mean? That depends on your perspective. It could be straightforward, a person laughing so much they're crying. It could be self-deprecating - you're laughing at yourself and a silly thing you did. Or it could be a way of gloating at somebody else.
笑中帶淚——這是地球上最常用的表情符號，是牛津英文字典2015年的年度詞匯。它是什么意思？這取決于你怎么看。它可以被簡單地理解為，一個人笑到流眼淚。它可以是自嘲的意思——一個人嘲笑自己和自己做的蠢事兒。不過它也可能是幸災樂禍的意思。

Vocabulary

nuance: 細微差別
self-deprecating: 自我嘲笑的
gloat: 幸災樂禍

英文來源：BBC
翻譯：董靜
編審：丹妮