In a global village, language barriers collapse with help from localization service providers. As against translation, localization is the combination of language and subject-matter translation. For example, for instructions for the installation of a software programme written in English will be translated to Chinese not just by a linguist, but by a software engineer who knows the software and has used it, and who also is an expert in the English to Chinese language pair. The result is not just word-for-word translation, but a translation that does not leave any margin of error of misinterpretation for a highly technical subject matter.

If you are a business owner, engaging the services of professional localization service providers is a good idea if your goal is to expand your market reach globally. But how do you know if the service provider is indeed an expert?

One way is to check for experience. Experience matters in translation work. You must check for a verifiable track record of clients, and investigate the clients for their satisfaction or dissatisfaction towards the service rendered. Go for companies that have credible clients, including government offices and agencies. These clients will tell you of the caliber of the translators.

Next, check for the translator’s CV. It is perfectly acceptable to investigate if indeed the localization service providers have the background necessary to understand the work at hand. If the text to be translated is a medical manual, then it is important for the translator to have had a background in medicine as well, either as a student or as a doctor. The level of experience and knowledge in the subject-matter is highly important in deciding on the localization service providers for you.

Words alone do not make as much impact as words that have been localized. Through this, foreign concepts can be expressed in ways that a local can understand and appreciate.

Language is primarily used to make meaningful interactions feasible. The more complex the message that a person needs to express, the more necessary it is to use a structured communication system.

Structured communication refers to the accurate usage of linguistic terminology, morphemes, syntax and other elements of language. But since it’s innate in humans to create tools, they also have learned to design devices that augment their ability to communicate. Thus, the emergence of an industry in today’s modern times called the software localization.

Translation Localization Services Are Under The Flagship Of Software Localization

Software localization is the process of adapting a product or a digital application to a particular market usually by translating the original text to the niche market’s local language. A professional language product firm offers translation localization services as one of their specialties.

Translation Localization Services And The Broader Scope Of Software Localization

It’s worth mentioning though that modification of a product or service may also apply to those with non-digital applications. A US-based car manufacturing company may design a particular car with the steering wheel on the right side for its UK-based branches. This example seems to qualify as part of localization, right?

This article puts more emphasis on translation localization services, however. Translation and localization services are interrelated, and yet one is different from the other. The first refers to the modification on the linguistic aspect of the product or application.

Localization services, on the other hand, involve the process of changing the design, including the layout and the use of localized graphic images, icons, short cut keys and other elements that are specific to a certain locality.

Translation Localization Services: Why Can’t These Two Processes Function Separately?

Both translation and localization services thus share the same goal: to strategically combine language and technology in creating a product that appeals to the local market. Translation and localization thus cannot be treated as independent processes as far as software localization is concerned.

To participate in the global economic field is among the most ambitious aspirations of many businesses. Being able to penetrate the international market signifies that a business has grown bigger and is ready for the challenges associated with globalization.

While many of us perceive globalization solely as the process of preparing a product for a multicultural market without putting much emphasis on language-specific content (internationalization), it actually involves another integral phase called localization.

Localization is the opposite of internationalization. Hence, prioritizing cultural assumptions is evident in this second phase of the globalization process. Localization is highly dependent on technology, just as internationalization is.

Providers Of Product Localization Services Singapore

Professional language product firms emerge out of the need of businesses for product localization services. These firms basically offer multilingual translation services.

But since most of international businesses utilize the Internet in promoting their product, product localization services Singapore has included additional services in its portfolio: software localization. Providers of product localization services Singapore thus may inevitably hire software engineers for systems management.

Why Localization Services Singapore Involve Product Modification

There are times that the product modifications needed range from grammar to spelling issues (with regard to translation). There are also instances when product modifications require major changes, including redesigning the product by adapting graphics, local images and other symbols that are common only in a particular area.

These changes, whether minor or enormous, are aimed at penetrating the local market by recognizing local sensitivities and merging into its local needs. Minimizing, if not totally eradicating, the conflict with local culture and standards contributes to successful penetration of a local market.

The Bloodlife Of Product Localization Services Singapore

It’s quite understandable for product localization services Singapore to grow quickly since they cater to multilingual clients whose demands range from translation services to localization of software applications.

Plainly put, product localization services Singapore often provide solutions to the three issues related to product localization: linguistic, content and cultural.

Localization is the second and larger process of language translation. A localization strategy involves cultural adaptation and peculiar dialect-based translation. It also involves subject-matter expertise, such that, not only top-calibre linguists provide the translation, they also have worked from the industry and have first-hand expertise of the subject they are translating for.

Localization strategy not only applies language translation, it involves a comprehensive study of the target culture in order to correctly apply or adapt a particular product to local needs. The application of localization is mostly involved in software, media and web-based products.

Do you desire to translate your software from Japanese to English and vice-versa? Do you want to re-produce your top-rating television show and other canned programming to the various dialects of a foreign language? Do you desire to create a local version of your e-commerce website and communicate your sales pitches in ways the local tongue would speak? Localization makes this possible.

In many ways, localization is not only a translation activity. For example, a software programmer who has skills in language translation is employed to localize a software program. A ballet dancer or an artist or someone who has expertise in the subject, such as an arts and humanities professor, may qualify to localize the script of a movie about ballet, arts, and humanities. A localization strategy reduces the possibility of nomenclatures which are specific to a particular subject matter from getting by mere translation.

WhizWordz localization also involves the careful localization of DVD languages and subtitling. This is particularly a necessity for regions or countries where people speak different dialects and employ different idioms. For example, Spanish in Spain and Latin America have different word choices and idioms.

Globalization has opened the floodgates of opportunity for a local merchandise to reach global markets. The right localization strategy makes it possible to enter the streams of globalization with success.

A website is among the best ways to reach a global market. That is, if any business wants to conquer geographic boundaries and service the world, such an internet presence will be most helpful.

Thanks to increased internet access and growing computer ownership, e-commerce has been slowly, but surely, gaining a foothold in the global marketplace. With the information highway, selling to the world, even from the comforts of one’s own home, has never been as easy (Easy of course, is a relative word…).

In order to partake of this windfall, a website is a must. First, it establishes a business entity’s presence to the world. Next, it is a perfect venue to provide details about the product or service offered to the public at large.

With growing competition, though, simply having a website no longer suffices. In order to sell effectively to different geographic markets, this website must be translated into different versions.

That is, there should be one website that caters to one specific geographic location. In other words, web localisation is the next logical step, after creating the website itself.

There are a number of reasons that justify the need for web localisation.

First, recent studies show that people in a geographic area are more likely to patronize a service or produce encountered on the internet if it is written in their native tongue. Herein lies the crux already, for the tendency of business owners is to develop content in country where the business is based in.

Another thing – did you know that some 50% of the queries that Google receives are in a language other than English? Interesting trivia, right? Yes, and it is another practical consideration for web localisation.

One more case for web localisation is that companies with websites in various languages chalk up more sales than those with an internet presence in just one language.

So, still not convinced? Consider the fact that Japan, China, France, Spain, Germany and Italy are counted among the world’s major markets. And their primary language is not English.

Ready for web localisation now? If the answer is a resounding “yes,” it is high time you find one that makes sense out of translation.

Back to translation. For those who are learning a third language, it is also important to immerse yourself into that environment so that you can pick it up faster. Non-native linguists who stay for long in a country would tend to understand even the localised terms. A language comes together with the culture. Thus building language bridges would allow one to build culture bridges as well!

In this book, Og featured The Ten Vows of Success.  The subject title belongs to the Fifth Vow.  Og explained each Vow in such simplicity that it is easily understood by the readers.  I truly believe whoever reads it will benefit tremendously from his knowledge.

In this Vow, I have learnt that “Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve my performance the next time”.  And never will I allow “The fear of adversity leading to failure casts a terrible shadow on all the days of our life”.    This is because “Experience is the most valuable extract of suffering and yet one of the terrible conditions of this life is that its wisdom cannot be transferred to another.”

“I understand, for the first time, how swiftly all deeds and events, good and bad, large and small, pass on and are no more, the works of man as well as the works of nature.”  I can only be stronger through my experience as “All things in life are not only in a constant state of change but they are the cause of constant and infinite change in each other.”

I will take accountability for all bad events that happen to me.  Never will I shift the responsibility to others.  I will become the best that I can be from each learning experience.  Always will I seek the seed of truimph in every adversity.

After I have read Paulo Coelho’s The Fifth Mountain, I continue to read his another book entitled “Like the Flowing River”.  This is a collection of reflections from Paulo Coelho. In this riveting collection of thoughts and stories, he offers his personal reflections on a wide range of subjects from archery and music to elegance, travelling and the nature of good and evil.

What actually caught my attention is when I read a particular short story on “The Other Side of the Tower of Babel”.  In this story, he pays his respect to the Holy Translator, Saint Mesrob.  Below is an extract of what Paulo had wrote and it best summarize the importance of a good book translator:

“Today is 9 October, 2004. The town is called Oshakan, and Armenia, as far as I know, is the only place in the world that has declared the day of the Holy Translator, St. Mesrob, a national holiday and where they celebrate it in style. As well as creating the Armenian alphabet (the language already existed, but only in spoken form). St Mesrob devoted his life to translating into his mother tongue the most important texts of the period, which were written in Greek, Persian or Cyrillic. He and his disciples devoted themselves to the enormous task of translating the Bible and the main literary classics of the time. From that moment on, the country’s culture gained its own identity, which it has maintained to this day.

The Holy Translator. I hold the flower in my hands and think of all the people I have never met, and perhaps may never have the opportunity to meet, but who, at this moment, have my books in their hands, and are doing their best tremain faithful to what I have tried to share with my readers. I think, above all, of my father-in-law, Christiano Monteiro Oiticica (profession: translator), who is today in the company of angels and of St. Mesrob, watching this scene. I remember seeing him hunched over his old typewriter, often complaining about how badly paid translation was (and, alas, still is). He would immediately go on, though, to explain that the real reason he translated was because he wanted to share a knowledge, which, but for translators, would never reach his own people.

I say a silent prayer for him, for all those who have helped me with my books, and for those who have allowed me to read books to which I would never otherwise have had access, thus helping – anonymously – to shape my life and my character. When I leave the church, I see some children writing the alphabet with sweets in the shape of letters and with flowers and more flowers.

When man grew ambitious, God destroyed the Tower of Babel, and everyone began to speak different tongues. However, in His infinite grace, he also created people to rebuild those bridges, to enable dialogue and the diffusion of human thought. This person, whose name we rarely take the trouble to notice when we open a foreign book, is the translator.”

The above extract has touched my heart when I read it.  In this commercial world, some people has failed to comprehend the importance of translation.   They fail to understand that a translator takes much effort and time to produce a good translation work.  My kudos to those professional translators in the world.  Thanks for being the Bridge Across Cultures in this world!

Thus I was actively searching throughout the internet, trying to find out what kinds of books to read, and I stumbled upon this.

It will not serve as a theoretical book to how you can translate your work, but it is a beginning to your work interest.

Of course once again not only do we need to take into account being a linguist, we also need to remember to localise the language to the specific area to which you are translating for.

A starter for your meal, I might say…

So why people get mix up with the 2 terms? People associate translation as “converting” from one language to another language. So anything to do with language conversion, it will mean translation whether it is for document or verbal. Interestingly, interpretation means oral translation.

I will usually explain to them that if anything that is to do with writing or brochure, it is translation. And if anything that is verbal, it is interpretation. Upon hearing this, our client is more aware of the difference. Hence they can tell their inquiry to us clearly. In this way, we can also tend to their inquiries faster.
This is what we call effective communication and good services to our clients.

So do you know the difference between translation and interpretation now?