LIKE THEM OR not, emojis are becoming an increasingly common means of communication. And now, they’re officially big enough that companies are hiring people to translate them.
Today Translation, a translation firm based in London, has posted an ad looking for an ‘emoji translator’ to come and work with them on a freelance basis:
Emoji translation is itself an emerging field – but one dominated to date by software, which is often insensitive to the many cultural differences in usage and interpretation.
We guess this means that a computer can’t tell the difference between someone using the aubergine emoji to refer to the vegetable, or… something else.
Translations vary from country to country too – for example in Japan, the words for ‘poo’ and ‘luck’ sound similar, so the smiley poo emoji is often used to say ‘good luck’.
We are therefore seeking an exceptional individual to provide the human touch needed where translation software is inadequate, and to help us become the go-to translation experts in this area.
The ideal applicant would have a Bachelors degree in Translation or Social Sciences and a “passion for emojis”.
Somewhat surprisingly, there’s real interest in the position – according to the BBC, the firm has received over 30 applications in the two weeks the ad has been posted.
2016, you keep on surprising us.
