Why your business needs localisation services
In the world of language translations and translation services you would think that a translation from one language into another would be sufficient and enough to pass as a ‘complete’ translation. You would think that you could get by on Google, Skype or some other third party translator software but that is not the case. The word ‘translation’ is defined by the Oxford dictionary as “The process of translating words or text from one language into another” and that is exactly what these said software’s achieve, but that is where the issue lies as a translation from one language to another word for word is just going to be a bunch of nonsense in the target language. This is where professional translation agencies come in as they provide professional translation services or in other words human translations carried out by actual qualified human translators.
These translators would more often than not be fluent in the source language as well as being a native speaker of the target language. This is so that the text could be translated into another language so that it makes complete sense rather than just random words put together. It is majorly important to have a readable translation but there is another step that can be taken specifically if the translation were to be aimed at different markets where it may need to be made as though one is speaking to the “locales”. This process is a vital one and is known as localisation or localisation services.
The localisation of a language is something businesses would use in order to target their products to ‘local’ markets where the general language may differ slightly such as French Canadian, Brazilian Portuguese and Mexican Spanish, to name a few. Localisation services are generally used for websites, software, videos games, audio voiceovers and other forms of multimedia. In addition to a translation from one language to another (making sense, grammar, correct spelling etc.) localisation will adapt the translation for the local market they intend to target, taking into account the proper formatting of letters and numbers, currencies, times, dates, as well as other details such as local customs and sensitivities towards certain images, phrases, graphics and colour schemes.
This is why your business needs to take into account localisation when looking to expand overseas, do not assume you can take a ‘one size fits all’ approach when marketing to different countries. One thing that works in Spain may not necessarily be successful in Spanish-speaking Argentina.
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Photo Credit: Nick Richards
