There are very dissimilar cultures, languages, idioms and methods of communication seen in localized markets, to the point where even North American and British markets require the use of Localization. The word itself, 'Localization', can even be substituted with the word 'Localisation' if the market in question uses British English (BrE, BE, en-GB)*. Even when the translator is confident in the non-native language, the translation may not be entirely accurate. In fact, the accuracy can easily decrease by 18% approximately if the translator does not ease into their native language. This is a possibility we feel you would not be comfortable with. Thus, we employ only translators translating into their native tongue to provide the best results.
Consider the following example:
One knows the idiom "To make a mountain out of a molehill” would mean to blow matters up; to overstate. In Dutch, it is known as "Hij maakt van een mug een olifant". However, its literal translation equates to "make a mosquito an elephant". As seen, a direct translation would have been incomprehensible in the Netherlands.
To further localize a website, it is crucial to integrate the nuanced differences in social practices of the target market. This boils down to the little details: the position of currency symbols, the size or type of font, terminology and phrasing (e.g. “shopping basket” vs “shopping cart”), cultural decorum (e.g. “send this email to a friend” is too colloquial for Japanese businesses)... the list goes on.
The Localization Process
During the website localization process, we adapt the website to adhere to local cultural norms, legal framework and language features. We perform localization of the website while ensuring that the product features, corporate identity and branding remain consistent with the original. As a value-added service, we are even able to advise you on tailoring your website to local business expectations and local aesthetics as well as on search engine marketing optimization.
Available Localization Services
Our Localization Services most frequently deal with the following websites:
- Commercial
- e-Commerce
- Government
- NGOs
For markup and scripting, we work with:
- HTML, XHTML, SGML, XML
- PHP, ASP
- Flash, Javascript, CSS
- All major languages