Can someone explain to me why certain people type jaja and not haha?

Question

I see it all over the Internet like youtube videos and forums and whatever and I just want to know why they type it that way. Like, they type a perfect English sentence and then say jajaja instead of the normal English way of hahaha. I'm just wondering if it would be cool if I started typing in Spanish and then add hahaha at the end instead of jajaja. Is there a difference? Idk it just seems like if you're going to learn English then learn it all the way and not just half way.

If you fill in your levels of proficiency in Spanish and English on your profile page, people will know better how to frame answers that will be helpful to you, and they will be a lot more likely to give you votes. - AnnRon, Sep 20, 2016

I don't know how to reply to all of you so just read my comments on some of the replies as a part two to my question. - jimmysmit, Sep 20, 2016

Answer 1

Think about the sounds. Both "haha" and "jaja" are examples of onomatopoeia: words that resemble sounds. In English "haha" represents a laughing sound. In Spanish "jaja" does the same because the "j" is pronounced like our "h". If Spanish wrote "haha" it would sound like "a-a" and not be a laughing sound.

Um that still doesn't explain why if they're typing in English they're ignoring that one little thing. I'd understand if they were typing in Spanish but they're not so... - jimmysmit, Sep 20, 2016

It's the difference between a word and a sound. You can translate a word, but not a sound. - jellonz, Sep 21, 2016

If they were to write "haha" it would no longer *sound* like a laugh to them. - jellonz, Sep 21, 2016

Answer 2

Jaja, jeje, jiji, jojo or even juju are in spanish to represent laughter, laughs or the comic. the j spanish sounds like the h of English in some cases like in habit.

Um that still doesn't explain why if they're typing in English they're ignoring that one little thing. I'd understand if they were typing in Spanish but they're not so... - jimmysmit, Sep 20, 2016

Answer 3

Jaja in spanish sounds exactly or almost exactly than haha in english

Answer 4

Jajaja... is just the pronunciation, for spanish speaker the letter "H" doesn't make sound. So if we write "hahaha" is like to say "aaa".

Answer 5

Even in your question yourself wrote jaja so it's valid but a little incorrect.

But still if someone is going to learn English should we not expect them to type it properly as we must type Spanish properly with the signs over the letters for pronounciation and such? - jimmysmit, Sep 21, 2016

In an informal environment like this we can wrote as we want but obviously even in this places is good writing sufficiently understandable so we should follow some formal rules for spanis and/or english. - siulldrs, Sep 21, 2016

Thank you siulldrs :) I still don't understand why they do it lol but thanks for answering my questions anyway. - jimmysmit, Sep 21, 2016

They do it because they want and it's not completely invalid. - siulldrs, Sep 21, 2016

Because they want and can - siulldrs, Sep 21, 2016

Answer 6

Jaja is for spanish and haha is for english the english guy who suddenly types jaja properly is kidding or "spanishing" but in a globalized and informal world or environment like Internet it's vald. like here, we can combine english and spanish