Localization concepts

According to Google (2017), localization is the fourth fastest-growing industry in the world. Additionally, LinkedIn placed translation among the most in-demand skills in 2019. Sounds exciting, right?

Still, many people don't know what localization is about. Many misconceptions surround this profession, coming from both insiders and outsiders. Sometimes, even top managers at tech companies cannot explain what localization entails.

Localized products are all around us, every day.

Localization specialists adapt products and services to different languages, cultural systems and geographic markets. They work on a variety of content types, from online help and landing pages to software and mobile apps. Localization professionals can also participate in audiovisual projects involving subtitling or voice-over tasks.

In our daily lives, we interact with machines constantly and frequently encounter the content types mentioned above. The way we experience products and services through user interfaces (UI) can make or break our relationship with a brand. That experience also depends on the quality of the language used.

Localization is the collaborative effort of both technical and creative people.

Localizing products and services for foreign audiences requires native specialists with outstanding creative skills and a technical understanding—but there's more to it. Localization is an effort made possible by the diverse skills of specialized professionals. Apart from translators, terminology specialists, reviewers and proofreaders, which other roles might be involved?

Product teams, for example, conduct market research to understand which markets are good candidates for an international launch and decide which languages should have the highest priority. Localization engineers design apps and software, ensuring that elements like character encoding and word length can be supported in the product's interface for different languages. At this stage, localization proper hasn't even started yet!

Later in the process, project managers are responsible for setting the strategy to localize specific products and coordinating team members to ensure project completion. Operations managers enable technology implementation into localization processes and workflows, while vendor managers collaborate with external partners like Language Service Providers (LSPs) to ensure that linguistic quality expectations are met.

Planning your next action steps

So, what are some steps to advance your localization journey? Here are a few thoughts.

For trainers

• Many localization professionals with years of experience lack formal qualifications. There is a strong interest in learning more about industry standards, best practices, successful strategies and established workflows.

For companies

• Studies have shown that over 80% of online users will only buy and use products if they can understand the language. If you're not tailoring your message to the key international audiences that matter to your business, you might miss out on many potential customers!

For language professionals

• Localization is becoming an increasingly technical profession, so make sure you stay up-to-date with state-of-the-art tools and trends. Integrating translation memories, termbases and machine translation engines into computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools can help you tailor your services and deliver different levels of quality according to the customer's needs.

In the age of language technologies, your intelligent, critical perspective and refined cultural sensitivity will continue to be highly appreciated.