What is Localization? Aspects of Localization - WordPar International

 

What is Localization?

Localization is the process of adapting your content to a different target audience, usually a different country and linguistic community. It includes ensuring that content is converted in a culturally-sensitive way, providing the readership a comfortable level of familiarity. Content globalization makes your content available to a global audience and includes intercultural communication and cross-cultural sensitization.

The localization process can be of varying complexity. Localization includes translation but also includes much more.

Aspects of Localisation

For a simple understanding of localization, here are some of the basic to subtler aspects.

1. Dates, currencies and decimals are used differently. This is clear between the English and the European decimal systems, where the comma and the dot are interchanged. In India, the comma is placed at a hundred thousand (a lakh) whereas in the rest of the world, it is placed at a million (100,000). Most of Europe and Asia display dates with day-month-year sequence whereas in the USA it is month-day-year. But this is only the most superficial aspect of localization. And the least relevant for the purpose of this discussion.
2. Writing systems of most languages are left to right, whereas those of Central Asia are right to left. Some traditional systems also write from top to bottom!
3. This will require the change of layout and graphics to be adapted and modified. And that brings us to the important aspect of adapting graphics and animations.
4. Idiomatic expressions cannot be literally translated. They must be substituted by equivalents of the expressions in the target language. Hence a certain amount of original thinking is required.
5. Trans-creation in advertising: Several marketing campaigns fail when new slogans translate into something that is not intended. We know that advertising slogans play with words, puns and relations between language and social meaning and similar sounding words. These are para-linguistic aspects, not even covered by cultural sensitivity. The conversion of these require original and creative rethinking. The writing and creation have to be replicated in the target language. The intended purport and effect have to be re-created. For this, we have another feature called trans-creation.

Learn more about: Localization Begins At Design Stage

WordPar provides convenient solutions to your Translation and Localization requirements. Be it simple documents such as bank statements and travel documents to more complex documents such as product manuals and legal agreements – we have it all covered with teams of specialized and qualified translations, always native users of the target language.

Our network of project managers, translators, proofreaders, and editors ensure a foolproof process of translation and quality checks with close attention to correct usage of registers appropriate to the field of translation.

Our localization teams ensure cultural and linguistic sensitivity towards the target audience is maintained in all our client’s translation projects.

If you are looking for the best Localization Companies in India, Feel free to reach out to us at info@wordpar.com or visit us on https://www.wordpar.com/translation-localization/

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