Loc300: Selecting a Translator

Reach

Let's say you have the goal of reaching 1 billion people with your products and services because you want to create value in as many people's lives as possible. You want to engage with people using language and imagery that will resonate and appeal to both their minds and their hearts. When the people you are trying to reach are multicultural, that means speaking to them in their mother languages. That said, to reach a multicultural audience, you'll need translation and localization.

"If you talk to people in a language they understand, that goes to their heads. If you talk to them in their language, that goes to their hearts." 🩵

— Nelson Mandela

Localization: Audience and Purpose

Localization is the act of taking the design, packaging, and language that come together to form a product created for one cultural group and gearing that product toward another audience with unique cultural characteristics. From a big picture perspective, the audience can be determined by ideas about a culture that are regional. Depending on the purpose of your products, you'll likely need to go much more specific than identifying only the regional characteristics of your audience's culture. More specific definitions of audience can include a group of people's line of work, their interests, the goals they want to accomplish, and therefore their needs.

During localization, the design and the language are adapted so that a product has the look and feel that your new audience expects. Localization can include incorporating new graphical elements and making changes to the layout of the user interface. The goal of course is to ensure functionality and create a positive experience.

Translation

Translation is an activity that happens during localization. Translation is the act of taking a message conveyed in one language and forming that message in another language. Translation entails identifying the key words that a specific audience uses to talk about a subject and using those words. Translation also entails identifying concepts from one language for which no clear equivalent exists in another language. Once identified, translation is about finding unique ways to get that part of the message across, through product naming, linguistic invention, and thoughtful explanations.

This means that a translation is not a simple copy of text in another language. This also means that accuracy in translation is contextually bound. If you care about your messaging, you'll want to make a strategic selection when deciding who will translate your message.