an exclamation mark and emoji I was talking to someone online today. I said something and put an exclamation mark at the end, as I always do, even at my work. However, the woman whom I was talking to

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an exclamation mark and emoji I was talking to someone online today. I said something and put an exclamation mark at the end, as I always do, even at my work. However, the woman whom I was talking to got very much annoyed and she told me not to yell. I was surprised at her reaction, because I didn't know what was wrong. Luckily there was my friend sitting next to me. She was a native English speaker, so I asked her for help. She explained that how my use of the mark with the sentence could come across as I was annoyed or frustrated. I told her that that's not what I was meaning, and then I said something different with an emoji. The emoji was a big smiley face, and I used it as "big smile". However, she got completely mad telling me it was a HAHA face and I was making fun of her with it. I started scaring of communication in English. Every time I said something, my words were interpreted in a way I didn't mean. Fortunately the girl who was sitting next to me explained and helped me, but I had never thought my English was that bad. I know it was kind of culture difference, but it was pretty shocking to me. Now I remember that sometimes I was told not to yell from someone when I used an exclamation mark. I didn't understand at that time, but now I know what he meant. I think I will stop using an exclamation mark and emoji from today.

Corrections · 11

an exclamation mark and emoji

I was talking to someone online today.

I said something and put an exclamation mark at the end, as I always do, even at my work.
However, the woman whom I was talking to got very much annoyed and she told me not to yell.

I was surprised at her reaction, because I didn't know what was wrong.
Luckily there was my friend sitting next to me. She was a native English speaker, so I asked her for help.
She explained that how my use of the mark with in the sentence could come across as if I was annoyed or frustrated.

I told her that that's not what I was meaning meant, and then I said something different with an emoji.

The emoji was a big smiley face, and I used it as "big smile".
However, she got completely mad telling me it was a HAHA face and I was making fun of her with it.

I started to become scareding of communicatingon in English.
Every time I said something, my words were interpreted in a way I didn't mean.

Fortunately the girl who was sitting next to me explained and helped me, but I had never thought my English was that bad.
I know it was kind of a culturale difference, but it was pretty shocking to me.

Now I remember that sometimes I was told not to yell at from someone when I used an exclamation mark.
I didn't understand at that time, but now I know what he meant.

I think I will stop using an exclamation marks and emojis from today.

@phil it was just casual conversation, not business one. At work, I use only :) just to express my friendliness. Yes, I only use capital letters when I really need to emphasize something, but very rarely.

It's my understanding that the smiley is interpreted as you described in mainland China. It's usually not offensive in English, although it does seem a bit too casual for business communication. And whatever you do, keep in mind that using all capital letters represents loud yelling.

@Kit I wrote this on FB, too, and someone else also advised me not to use exclamation mark a lot, because some people could feel they were yelled. As for emoji, I was told that she was not right, so I don't need to be scare of useing... anyway, it was a bit shocking for me and realized that I should be more careful with my writing because sometimes it's hard to understand from texts what people are really meaning.

@Vera. Official language at my work is English. I really didn't know about ASAP. I used it a lot, too. I will be more careful. Thanks for letting me know. :)

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