I still haven’t fully accepted him as Kakao canon. Ryan came out sometime during my second year in Korea, so between late 2015 to early 2016. I can’t find the old version of Ryan’s backstory anywhere, so here’s this instead: Apeach is a sassy peach who’s “not afraid to show off its backside.” And its name is literally “a peach.” Coincidentally, Apeach is another character who seemed to have gone from male to gender neutral.Īnd finally the last character is Ryan, the Kakao newbie. I wonder if they’ll do more with this character. He’s the one who has interesting emojis that I never really use. Now designers seem to be focusing more on his identity as a secret agent (who still loves hip-hop). He was a mole, which was interesting, but that was it. Jay-G used to be the boring wannabe rapper. Fortunately in the update, designers have drawn out features besides “loves hip-hop” in the one character clearly coded as black. Woah, is this allowed? And/or racist? Jay-G seems to be a walking stereotype and his name is just too obvious of a rip-off. Perhaps this little detail is relatable in a society where most can trace their family history back to specific clans and regions. His emoticons cover stereotypical boyfriend stuff.Īlthough it’s not in this description, people have also said that Frodo is a mixed breed, and therefore very sensitive to matters of birth and status. She’s a stereotypical girly-girl But her emojis are fun.Īlso this Dragon Ball Z reference is excellent.įrodo doesn’t have a lot going for him either he just looks good. Honestly I don’t have much to say about Neo. And they were definitely spot on with “the couple.” Couples in Korea are a big deal, from couple outfits to the common 100-day anniversary gifts. The Kakao Friends designers created each characters with different segments of the population in mind. But in the revamp, they receive separate descriptions. In Muzi’s original bio above, the creator uses “he,” but in the updated version, the writers are careful to avoid any gendered pronouns and only use “it.”Īnother pair usually grouped together, largely defined by their relationship, if you ask me. I always default to my students’ expertise on matters of Korean pop culture, so I conceded that I wasn’t sure about Muzi’s gender. When I used a Kakao Friends review game in class one day, my students were shocked to hear me use a male pronoun for Muzi. Con is some sort of evil scientist who brought Muzi to life. At first glance, Muzi seems like a rabbit, but it’s actually a picked daikon radish or damuji in Korean. Muzi is by far the most creative character. He (or possibly she) is usually paired with Con, a tiny, alligator-like creature. Muzi is a definitely second favorite for me. As a result, he gets the table flipping emoji. He also has a hulk-like alter ego: a green duck that breathes fire and destroys things. Tube wears flippers to hide his small feet – in the first image you can see that one has fallen off. He has two main traits: his foot insecurity and his alter ego. I don’t want to sway you too much, but Tube is the best. Since I first learned about Kakao friends – they were included in a workshop during my Fulbright Korea orientation – the company has revamped the character descriptions and added a new Kakao friend. Kakao Friends and Their Elaborate Backstories We’ll go through them, and then you tell me what’s not to love? On top of that, these little characters each come with distinct personalities. You can’t help but want to use the adorable Kakao Friends emojis. Having awesome emojis is probably why everyone in Korea seemed to have such a strong emoji game. ![]() So this is just as much for my benefit as yours: An emoticon is text and an emoji is a picture. emoticons is one of those things I look up, and then immediately forget. (And in case you get the two confused, we’re talking emojis here, not emoticons, which look like this: : ) or : – ( or ^_^. This audio clip was pulled from a real speech and you can still use this alert today.īut the thing that distinguishes Kakao from Line is not its “Obama Talk” or its bright yellow color scheme. It’s pronounced a bit like cacao, with more emphasis on the first “ka.” Better yet, just listen to Obama pronounce it in the “Obama Talk” alert. Line might be more widely used, but Kakao is king in Korea. My personal favorite is Tube, the duck in the center, but we’ll get to that later. Only because my laptop is covered in Kakao character stickers. While deciding what to write about for this week, I kept thinking about the emoji characters from Kakao Talk, a popular messaging app in Korea similar to WhatsApp or Line.Īlthough it’s been nearly a year since my Fulbright grant ended and I left Korea, I think of Kakao emojis often.
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