Strange emoticon

My penpal sent me an email and apologized for his English, (which wasn't that bad) followed by an emoticon that looks like this: m(_ _)m What is that supposed to be?

It is an apology and is meant to look like the head leaning forward in a bow with the eyes closed.

Usually interpreted as 'sumimasen'

two "m"s on both sides are man's hands,
two brackets "("")" are man's head outline,
and two underscores "_" are man's eye closed.

A classical Japanese style of apologizing, or "Dogeza",
in which one kneel down to the ground, put both hands on the ground, and bow deeply to put one's forehead to the ground,
is depicted.

I do not necessarily think it is "dogeza," bowing for apology on the ground, but just "bowing with apology," maybe placing the hands on the table :) At least when I use this emoticon, I do not give it the serious meaning of "dogeza" anyway; it's an apology in general. Just showing that you are bending your head down.

dice-geist, is this emoji only seen as being a man? It's definitely not possible for it to be female?

As AK has precisely noted,
it doesn't necessarily mean a grave apology as traditional ''dogeza'' style,
but the emoticon is used very casualy.

Just that it reminded me ''dogeza'' when I tried to explain
why hands are depicted with a bowing person.

Actually, kneeling down and putting one's hand on floor itself doesn't mean a serious apology.
In our culture we used to sit directly on tatami-mat or wooden floor,
and when we bow down low, we naturally put hands on floor to support upper body and
make the posture beautiful.

Mentioning ''dogeza'' for illustrative purpose was quite rude of me for your friend.


And this emoji(or Japanese emoticon) is not necesarrily seen as male.
It is utterly genderless and woman can use it with no problem.
I just used the word ''man'' to mean human being in general.