 What's the fastest growing language in the world right now? You might think it's English or Spanish or Chinese, but you need to stop thinking about words. That's right, the fastest growing language is that of the emoji. Emojis are an increasingly popular tool in online communication, particularly among the younger generations. They're so popular, in fact, that there's a movie being made about them. The name comes from combining the Japanese words e, meaning picture, and moji, meaning character. You might even recognize some of them. There are the more obvious ones, smiley faces, sad faces, fist bumps, and hearts. And some that are more obscure, such as pizza slices and eggplants. But why are these images so popular? It's because they represent concepts and emotions far more simply and easily than words can. After all, we've been using pictures to explain things since the ancient Egyptians and cave people before them. Pictures transcend language barriers, because they're often instantly recognizable, they take far less effort by the brain to decode. Think of how you can see a red circle, cross through, and the silhouette of a dog behind, and you know that it means no dog's allowed. Or how you see the floppy disk icon in a word processor and know that it saves your work, even if you've never used a floppy disk in your life. Or maybe people are lazy, or maybe they like emojis just because they're fun. Either way, they're here to stay. What was the Oxford Dictionary's word of the year for 2015? Face with tears of joy.