Localization means adapting a translated text to the culture, lifestyle, customs and communication registers of the country at which our text is directed.
Certain facets of adaptation are performed automatically, to guarantee a translation that’s correct from the structural point of view. Examples include the direction of the text (right to left or left to right), systems of measurement, numbers, alphabet, currency, dates and time.
Other adaptations are more culturally sensitive, but are equally important in that they concern aspects related with communication strategy. We therefore have to take into account the meaning of the words or speech, of elements such as irony or sarcasm, double meanings, figures of speech, hackneyed expressions – even the different use of colours. These may be perfectly suitable in the source text, but when literally transposed to the target text can be totally inappropriate, sometimes even offensive. It’s not enough merely to translate, therefore: to localize a text we need in-depth knowledge of the culture at which it’s directed. That’s why we only select native speakers who were born and raised in the target country to perform our localization services.
The two most common types of localization are:
Both are sub-categories of language localization.
