Challenges of localization
Should you localize your website? Is it worth the money and effort? These are key decisions your company needs to take. Before answering these questions, we all know that English is the language that dominates the internet, but only represents 25% of the usage worldwide. For many people visiting an English language website, English is a second language. A survey by Eurobarometer found that 48% of internet users in the European Union visited English language websites occasionally. However, only 18% said they would frequently buy online in a language that is not their first, and 42% said they would never buy online in a language that was not their own. These statistics clearly indicate the need for localization. But before you localize your website, pay attention to the challenges you might faces, from design to cultural adaptation to translation. Let’s look at each of these in detail.
1. Design:
a. Translation: As we translate into different languages, the text length can fluctuate as much as 40% and this can impact the appearance of your design. For example, words in German tend to be much longer. You need to account for these variations to ensure the layout and design look good.
b. Character Set: A character set is a collection of characters that might be used by multiple languages. For instance, the Latin character set is used by English and most European languages, the Greek character set is used by the Greek language, and the Chinese use logograms. The Middle eastern countries’ languages, like Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu, Farsi, are written from left to right. The Chinese and Japanese languages are written from top to bottom. The key here is to make sure you understand your localization needs when you design, and adapt your design to meet these character sets so the layout is presentable and readable.
c. Formatting: Formatting for dates, postal codes, currency denominations are different from country to country. Most of the world write the date as DD/MM/YY while the US format the date as MM/DD/YY. As you design any forms or content, it’s important that it fits into the format specific to that country.
2. Cultural Considerations:
a. When designing a website, you need to take into account the culture of the country and understand your users’ preferences. Some of the far eastern countries like Japan and China, tend to prefer an intuitive, interactive website design, which can include images or animation. Countries like North America and Germany prefer information that is laid out clearly with more explicit instructions.
3. Translation: There are several translation management systems you can use to translate your content. However, it is critical that an internal person reviews the translation as you will face the following issues:
a. Meaning: Words can have multiple meanings. For example, in English we use “fish”, regardless of whether it is on a plate or in the sea, while in Spanish, if you are eating fish you say “pescado”, while if you are going fishing you refer to them as “peces”. Also, watch out for words that may mean different things in different countries, such as the word “pants” in the US, versus the word “trousers” in the UK.
b. Context: When language can have multiple meanings and direct translations don’t cut it, context is everything, and this is easy for an automated translation to miss. Some words don’t translate directly into other languages. For instance, “awkward” can mean embarrassment, discomfort or uncertainty, depending on the context. Only a human can catch this and determine the right word for the translation.
c. Tone and Style: When you translate content from one language into another, it’s not always easy to maintain the same tone and style. When you have a person review it, make sure they also review the tone and style to ensure it meets the markets needs.