1) Internationalization- these are techniques that simplify the adaptation of a program (game, website) to the cultural characteristics of people living in certain regions. Almost all ethnic and cultural characteristics inherent in the people who created this product are removed from the software product. For example, statements or phraseological units that different languages sound completely different, or speech patterns that have no analogues in the target language. Phrases that need to be replaced in order to achieve understanding of the people for whom the translation is being created.
2) The stage of localization itself to the realities of people speaking the target language. Cultural, technical, linguistic and other adaptations are made in order to make software as close as possible, as understandable to the sales market (the people for whom the translation is being carried out).
Both stages are very difficult to perform, but if they are performed correctly and according to all the rules, then the audience for whom the translation was created should not feel that this game was created for people speaking a different language. People, when viewing or playing an adapted version of a game or program, should have the feeling that the game or program was created by people who speak the same language as that person and have the same life realities and habits as that person.
The title of the article contains a seemingly simple question. We translate an article from a magazine, we localize an application, nothing complicated. In fact, it's not like that. As it turns out, many people, including customers of translation services, do not see the difference between the two terms, and therefore do not want to allocate physical and financial resources to the a priori more complex and lengthy localization process. The phrase “why do you need time for research, sat down and translated quickly” can be heard unpleasantly often. Therefore, we want to talk a little about the difference between these two concepts (and you may show this article to your customer, which will convince him).
To compete in today's global economy, organizations need to tailor their website and digital media content to an international audience. Yet many companies, large and small, do not understand the important differences between translation and localization. In this article by dr. Nitish Singh talks translation versus localization and explains why the two complementary processes have great importance, but in different ways.
Translation and localization. What is the difference?
The terms "localization" and "translation" are often used interchangeably. And yet, although the terms and processes have common features and goals, the result is completely different.
To understand the difference, let's start with some simple definitions:
What is translation?
Translation is a word-by-word transformation or transformation of a language. If you want to make sure customers know how to use your product effectively, it's important that the source and target language text match exactly. The purpose of translation is to achieve semantic equivalence by ensuring idiomatic, vocabulary and conceptual equivalence.
What such localization?
Localization (also referred to as l10n) implies that a product is linguistically and culturally appropriate for the area where it will be used and sold. These changes are visible to and associated with cultural connotations by the buyer of the product or service.
The product is linguistically and culturally appropriate– this is the key phrase for comparison. Both processes appear to be very active or complex. However, knowing the difference between what is equivalent and what is relevant is very important for success in globalization processes.
Importance translation And localization
Translation is a subset of activities performed during the linguistic localization of a product or service. This is important because most Internet users prefer to read web content in their native language. They feel freer and tend to stay on a site that is written in their native language.
Localization itself is also a subset of activities carried out in the process of product globalization. The word "local" is used here instead of "belonging to one country" because one country may have different linguistic and cultural requirements. For example, in Canada, companies need to localize websites and/or social media media for French or in English end users.
Translation and localization. When the difference matters
Translation may face problems of intent and clarity if the source language is word-for-word equivalent to the target language, as may be the case with machine translation that is not followed by professional editing. Even if a text is translated into the source language by a well-trained linguist, he may lack the knowledge of the cultural and technical nuances necessary to effectively understand the target audience.
While simple translation may be appropriate for some types of content in certain markets, localization is more often required to tailor highly emotional, creative marketing content so that it has the desired effect in all regions.
Localization is also used for content that makes customers interact with your brand. Because of this, translation and localization differ on a tactical level.
We can see this best when we localize a website for a specific country or culture. Particular attention should be paid to local customs, date and time, currency and numbering format, units of measurement, addresses and telephone numbers, layout and orientation, icons and symbols, linguistic and verbal style, color and aesthetics. For example: Yahoo has websites for 24 countries in 12 languages, and localization teams are physically located in target countries for the purpose of developing and maintaining country-specific websites.
After the advent of computers and the Internet, even larger volumes of information began to need translation - translation of websites, computer programs, games, etc. This is where a new, not yet fully formed, scientific direction emerged - localization.
Localization (from the English localization - software) is not just another name for translation, it is a completely new discipline that is trying to help people master and navigate the Internet, as well as the computer. To clarify the nature and essence of localization, we formulated the following definition: localization is a type of translation activity in the form of cultural and linguistic adaptation of a product in the field of computer science, cybernetics and related sciences.
The goal of the localization process is the linguistic and mainly cultural adaptation of the product to the territory of its distribution using various computer programs. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve research problems in 2 areas:
1. study of the specifics of computer discourse.
2. study and implementation of translation models that focus on the transmission of cultural aspects of meaning in the translation text.
Let's briefly look at each direction. Following the scientist A.V. Trembling define computer discourse as communication on computer topics on the network. In its study, the emphasis is on the specifics computer terms, jargons, professionalisms and slangisms.
As for the second aspect, we rely on the developed by L.V. Kushnina’s concept of translation space and the theory of harmonization. Within this concept, localization, as a type of translation activity, requires cultural adaptation. Therefore, in terms of localization, firstly, the content field acquires the greatest significance, so as not to distort the meaning of this field. Secondly, the field of the recipient, since a bearer of another culture must adequately understand the author’s intention, thirdly, the phatic field in order to convey the cultural meaning as much as possible. Their synthesis (synergy) can lead to harmonious translation.
A specialist who is engaged in localization (localizer) must combine the knowledge of a translator and an engineer, understand computers and speak the language, and master the necessary information means, to understand the materials that will need to be localized, for example, changing menus, images, message boxes, etc. There are already several courses for training localizers - in Canada and Germany, in Ireland and America.
There are three levels of localization:
1.Provide language support and national standards, the minimum required for the program to perform its functions in another country (displaying language characters, entering text, alphabetical sorting, string operations, etc.)
2. Translation of texts in the program interface into the target language.
3. Fine tuning tailored to the target country (working with word forms, additional standards that do not affect the main functionality of the program, taking into account the national mentality, etc.).
To further clarify localization and speech activity, we will give a definition of speech activity and establish the role of language in speech activity. According to A.N. Leontiev’s definition, “speech activity is an active, purposeful, motivated, objective (substantive) process of issuing and (or) receiving, formed and formulated through the language of thought (expression of will, expression of feelings), aimed at satisfying the communicative and cognitive needs person in the process of communication" (Leontyev A.N., "Psychological study of speech", 1935).
As studies by I.K. Sitkareva have shown, the role of localization in translation is to adapt the text. Based on the work of the researcher “Gaps in a literary text: a linguistic and cultural study,” adaptation is a range of strategies for interaction with an interpreted sign that is emerging in the mind of the translator, the main loci of which are adaptability as the orientation of translation to the receptor culture and resistance as the orientation of translation to the source culture. This range is presented in the translator’s mind in the form of a set of potentially possible translation solutions, from which he selects the most acceptable in relation to the specific conditions of intercultural interaction.
At the same time, the communicative space of intercultural interaction remains fundamentally open to repeated interpretations.
Terminology
Here are a few freely translated and edited definitions from MSDN:Localization is the process of translating application resources into localized versions for each culture that the application supports. The localization transition should only occur after the condition is met Localizability, i.e. the executable code is separated from any user interface elements.
Globalization is the process of designing and developing an application that supports a localized user interface and regional data for users from different cultures. Information about specific language and region settings may include: writing system, calendars used, date and time format conventions, numbers, monetary and physical units, sorting rules, and even address, telephone, and default paper size formats.
So what teams do that brings initially non-localizable products to the required form is called a big word - globalization, but not by localization.
language and regional standards
So, .NET has a main class that represents information about locales (for unmanaged code, called "locale" in English) - System.Globalization.CultureInfo. Next to it there is also Calendar, RegionInfo, NumberFormatInfo, DateTimeFormatInfo and many others. etc.Culture has a name (essentially a code), and it is convenient to communicate in these terms. The invariant culture has an empty name, so we will denote it as ivl.
Two crops flow
Any thread instance of Thread has two properties: public CultureInfo CurrentCulture (get; set;) and public CultureInfo CurrentUICulture (get; set;)The first culture is used to format numbers, dates, etc. regional settings, and the second is used to find suitable localized resources.
So why is it necessary? two culture? There is a reason for this: for a descendant of the Anglo-Saxons, born and living in India, the native language is English. This is where he wants to see the program interfaces on his laptop. However, when working in Excel, it will most likely operate in rupees (letter रु in Hindi), and at the same time knows that the area of his native country is 32,87,590.01 km 2.
Crops tree structure
Cultures form a tree. Those. Every culture has a parent.At the root of the tree there is “no” culture - invariant. It does not contain information about the region, it represents a non-existent invariant language, the formatting rules of which are strangely similar to American ones. The parent of an invariant culture is another invariant culture, and so on until stack overflow.
The opposite is certain (specific, specific) culture. They contain information about the language/script, the region, and the formatting of numbers and dates. Examples: ru-RU, en-US, en-IN.
The parents of specific crop cultures are neutral culture. The purpose of such cultures is to carry information about language and writing. Before .NET 4.0, culture neutrals could not contain formatting and region information, now this information is taken from the dominant specific culture. Examples: ru, en, mn-Cyrl (Mongolian, Cyrillic), mn-Mong (Old Mongolian letter).
A quick question for the attentive reader: who can be the parent of a neutral culture?
Common Misconceptions
So, we can easily imagine a branch of a crop tree using the example of ivl<- ru <- ru-RU . Но неверно утверждать, что иерархия всегда состоит из трех культур. Так, например, думали авторы книги Язык программирования C# 2005 для профессионалов в примере к 17-й главе, и тогда это было почти верно .But languages with multiple scripts break the stereotype.
Before .NET 4.0, everything was completely confusing: there were specific cultures, the parent of which was the invariant one. See tula.
Chinese bush
Jambs from MS
№1
We present to your attention another bush of crops - Uzbek:
It is clear what happened: after 1991, languages that had once been translated into Cyrillic began to be intensively removed from the Cyrillic alphabet.
The CultureInfo class has a string NativeName property, i.e. name of the culture in the language being described. For the uz-Latn-UZ culture, the NativeName value is U"zbek (U"zbekiston Respublikasi), although in fact it should be O"zbek (O"zbekiston Respublikasi).
There are already many versions of .NET.
№2
Let's talk about the former Soviet republic of Moldova, self-name "Moldova". Moldovans speak Moldovan. Although philologists argue that this is not an independent language, but a dialect of Romanian.In fact, there are three Romanian languages:
- Romanian in Romania (Latin);
- Romanian in Transnistria (Cyrillic), remaining in the form in which it was at the time of the collapse of the Union;
- Romanian in Moldova (Latin), with its own version of romanization, which does not coincide with that adopted in Romania.
And of course, .NET allows you to create your own cultures.
It’s interesting that once upon a time, in the first .NETs and old operating systems, ru-MO and ro-MO cultures were noticed. Yes, the region code was MO, not MD as it is now. Has the ISO standard changed?
Taboo for localizable applications
The list cannot be complete, but there are examples from personal experience in catching bugs in localized applications.№1
Obviously, you should never mess with the names of system folders. Although, it would seem, where can Program Files go? Due to some absurdity, in Windows localized into Russian, this folder was not renamed. But this is not the case in all localizations!In the Spanish localization, the folder is proudly called Archivos de programa. I recommend: Google translation from Spanish into Russian.
№2
The real bane of a globalized-localizable application is strings. Concatenating. But even if the strings are with substitutions, then the contents of the substitutions without comments are not obvious to translators: "(0)" caused the error "(1)".(2)Refer to (3) . And by (2) we mean the banal Environment.NewLine .To explain everything, let's look at an example. Google has failed to beat search engine Baidu in China. Why do you think? It's all about language limitations. And here a logical question arises: is it possible to achieve success in the foreign market using exclusively pure translation services? No. This is not enough. Additionally, localization will be required. The success of business promotion in another country depends on it.
Understanding the terminology
Localization should be understood as the procedure for adapting a product or service to the target audience of a specific country. Of course, this concept includes translation. However, taking into account many additional factors. These include cultural, social and geographical features, monetary units, dialect, humor, life priorities of the population and other nuances.
Localization is especially important when creating a different language version of the site. In addition to translation services, you need to do the following:
Localize the resource structure;
Localize the content. This applies to multimedia content and site style;
Optimize the site for foreign search engines, etc.
Do you think that a company providing only translation services can cope with this task? Of course not. To do this, you will need to have a team of strong linguists and IT specialists who possess certain skills and use advanced technologies in their work.
As a rule, reliable Kyiv translation agency Cooperation has been established with relevant personnel. Thanks to this interaction, they can perform high-quality localization of a product or service.
Remember, if localization is done correctly, the target audience will perceive the product or service as if it were originally created to meet their needs. As a result, the efficiency of business promotion abroad increases.
The main difference between localization and translation
Most people believe that localization is translation using advanced technologies. In fact, this is a special language service. A very complex process consisting of many nuances.
An additional benefit of localization is that it improves important non-textual components of services and products. For example, time and date format, physical structure, etc. As a result, they are no different from local products and services, since they fully comply with the traditions and culture of a particular country.