Language localization as a type of translation activity

What is localization?

Localization began to develop as a separate direction when the first computers were invented.It is a relatively new area of translation activity.

For example, computer games are primarily created in English and have an English-language interface. They are made for the realities of people living, for instance, in America or Canada.When this computer game is released in other countries, translators will translate it according to the realities (habits, concepts) of the inhabitants of these countries.

What is the localization aimed at?

Sometimes, localization includes not only translating programs, games, and system software but also adapting (adjusting) the game’s color palette (Internet site) to the usual people for whom the translation is created. It’s all fascinating.

People of all countries and nationalities are different from each other. Even one individual person differs in behavior, character, and perception of the world from another person. People speaking different languages and even living in different cities have different habits and traditions. Everyone has a different way of the world in their heads from childhood.

Due to the differences in people speaking different languages and living in various countries, the translator must create a new creation in the form of a game, program, or other content to make the content closer in spirit and habits to people of a particular country, language, or mentality.

Stages of the localization process

• Internationalization – these are techniques that make it easier to adapt a program (game, website) to the cultural peculiarities of people living in certain regions. The software product is stripped of virtually all ethnic and cultural characteristics of the people who created the product.For example, statements or phraseological phrases sound entirely different in different languages, or speech turns with no analogs in the target language. Turns that need to be replaced to achieve an understanding of the people for whom the translation is being created.
• The stage of localization itself to the realities of the people speaking the target language. Cultural, technical, linguistic, and other adaptations are made to make the software product as close and understandable as possible to the market (people for whom the translation is made).

Both steps are complicated to perform, but if they are done correctly and according to all the rules, the audience for whom the translation was created should not feel that the game was created for people who speak a different language. When viewing or playing an adapted version of a game or program, people should get the feeling that the game or program was created by people who speak the same language and have the same life realities and habits as that person.

How complicated is the process?

Localization requires the efforts of many translators and computer specialists, sometimes psychologists and specialists in cultural fields of activity. Often, the interpreter must be a
psychologist, ethnographer, or whatever it takes to get a sense of the subtle cultural and linguistic characteristics and present them to the audience gracefully without missing a single detail.