"I can't believe you have to go home already! I'm going to miss you! QQ"
QQ? You might be thinking to yourself, what's that? If you have been in Taiwan for a semester and still don't know, or if you're sitting somewhere not in Taiwan reading this and don't know, fret not for you have come to the right place!
Hi and welcome to a special segment of Street Talk! Today, I would like to introduce you to a commonly seen expression used in both texting and on food-related signs/packaging: QQ. And no I am not referring to that little penguin which you may associate with QQ Messenger.
QQ actually has two usages: the first, which you will commonly see in reference to food (in particular, bubble tea or 珍珠奶茶) and the second, in text messaging as in the example at the beginning of this post.
The first meaning is often seen on food packaging or food stands, such as milk tea (奶茶):
Sweet potato balls (地瓜球):
Even candy:
But what does it mean exactly? In this case, it means soft and chewy (moreso chewy than soft) and I guess Taiwanese people must really like chewy food as many things are often advertised as "QQ" in giant letters. I'm not exactly sure why it means chewy but if you particularly like chewy foods then you can be sure to find an abundance of QQ drinks (or the 珍珠 in the drink rather), food, and sweets.
Now the second meaning of QQ, which you will see in texts (or sometimes spoken), is to cry, or more specifically, the QQ itself represents crying eyes, similar to T^T in English or ㅠㅠ in Korean. Again I am not sure where the origin of this meaning came from but it seems that it might have been from the popular online game World of Warcraft. To many people, the QQ really does resemble teary eyes, Also, similar to how people in the U.S. might casually throw in chatspeak such as "lol" or "omg" into a conversation, people in Taiwan will also casually throw QQ into a conversation, sometimes to mean chewy, but also to represent tears.
So if you ever want to express sadness when texting your Taiwanese friend, just use QQ and they will instantly understand. That's it for today's segment of Street Talk--I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time!
P.S. What are some commonly used chatspeak phrases in your country?
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| Not this QQ |
The first meaning is often seen on food packaging or food stands, such as milk tea (奶茶):
Now the second meaning of QQ, which you will see in texts (or sometimes spoken), is to cry, or more specifically, the QQ itself represents crying eyes, similar to T^T in English or ㅠㅠ in Korean. Again I am not sure where the origin of this meaning came from but it seems that it might have been from the popular online game World of Warcraft. To many people, the QQ really does resemble teary eyes, Also, similar to how people in the U.S. might casually throw in chatspeak such as "lol" or "omg" into a conversation, people in Taiwan will also casually throw QQ into a conversation, sometimes to mean chewy, but also to represent tears.
So if you ever want to express sadness when texting your Taiwanese friend, just use QQ and they will instantly understand. That's it for today's segment of Street Talk--I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time!
P.S. What are some commonly used chatspeak phrases in your country?
