How to Laugh Online in 26 Languages

You heard the joke about the grandma who thought "LOL" meant "lots of love," and then added it to her social media posts when announcing someone's death. There is value in all of us being on the same page when we create internet shortcuts. And people take those shortcuts all over the world, to make their typed interactions seem more personal and real. If you ever dive into a website in a language you're just learning, or one you thought you were fluent in when speaking, it might be good to know how other people react. This map lays out how people laugh online in other languages.

In English, it's good to know LOL and ROFLMAO, but in actual use, more people type "haha". The actual sound of laughter is spelled differently in other languages, such as “jajaja” in Spanish. But that can change to denote different meanings behind the laughter. In Ukraine, “ахахахах” is a regular laugh, while “азаза” is sarcastic laughter. And in Indonesia, a laugh written as “wkwkwk” has a story behind it that has to do with the layout of a keyboard. Read up on all these methods of laughing in type at Preply. -via Boing Boing