According to a research from McKinsey & Company, Africa’s future looks bright. Some predictions include:

• 50% of Africans will be living in cities by 2030
• 128 million households will have discretionary income in 2020
• 1.1 billion Africans will be of working age by 2040
• Africa’s consumer spending will be $1.4 trillion by 2020
• Africa’s GDP will be $2.6 trillion by 2020

(Source: Lions on the move: The progress and potential of African economies)

Fast Facts on African Languages and Locales

• Africa is a continent not a country
• There are 56 countries (recognized and defacto states) in Africa
• Six of the ten fastest-growing countries in the world are in Africa
• There are an estimated 2000+ African languages
• There are 4 primary language families in Africa (some classify up to 7 families)

Approximate number of languages and speakers

• Afro-Asiatic – 200 languages covering Northern Africa
• Nilo-Saharian – 140 languages with 11 million speakers throughout Central and Eastern Africa
• Niger-Saharian (Niger-Congo A & B) – 1000 languages with some 200 million speakers
• Khoisan – 30 languages in the western part of Southern Africa

Note: Language families are groups of languages with a common origin and common traits such as syntax, morphology and phonology. It is believed that as people speaking a common language migrated away from each other, languages evolved with each dispersed group. Over time each separate group developed its own new language.
Resource:https://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m8/map1.php.

Note: As most of you know Africa’s history is sadly made up of a collection of colonizations. There were several languages introduced to Africa through colonization. This resulted in some European languages, or colonial languages, becoming the official language(s) in most African countries. Today, the majority of Africans speak indigenous African languages as a first language and colonial languages as a second or third language.
Resource:  https://exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/students/curriculum/m8/map2.php.

National, Official and Trade Languages in Africa

The complex landscape of African languages has evolved and continues to evolve as languages die, become national languages and / or rise to a trade language status due to widespread usage. Companies wishing to expand into an African market should be careful to utilize the most culturally suitable languages based on the country, region, products and services you are offering AND to whom you are targeting, whether B2B or B2C.

Sources: Ethnologue, ISO Country Names (ISO 3166-1), ISO Languages Names (ISO 639-1), African Academy of Languages (ACALAN) and others.

The post African Languages and Locales: Essential Facts appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

As mentioned in the previous two blogs in our series of challenges with eLearning localization, cultural limitations in eLearning platforms can inhibit the achievement of equitable learning outcomes. We first discussed the different types of eLearning, which are synchronous, asynchronous and self-paced. These are used in the academic, business and corporate training environments. We then discussed the localization challenges with asynchronous eLearning.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the localization challenges in the synchronous environment, which are typically manifested in webinars. Webinars are live events in which the presenter can choose to lecture to the audience or to interact with them. Examples of webinar platforms include LiveMeeting, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Zoom, etc. In addition, we can include similar synchronous communication tools like Skype in this category, although they may not be as robust with interactivity features. Some of the localization challenges are similar to those found in asynchronous environments. For example, the content needs to be relevant and contextualized, and in a language that the targeted learners can easily understand. Instructional approaches still need to be culturally inclusive, which we’ll discuss in this blog.

However, in webinars, we have additional challenges:

1. How to design the course in a way that is inclusive for members of all cultures.
2. Facilitators/instructors need to have highly developed cultural skills so that they can effectively communicate with members of other cultures.
3. Ensure that the platform is technologically accessible in other countries.

Course Design

Webinar Platform Features

Webinar platform features, such as the lecture format, engagement features and collaboration features, dictate many aspects of course design. While many of these features are a good fit for a U.S.-based audience, challenges can occur for learners outside the U.S.

For example, instructors typically present content in a lecture format supported by PowerPoint slides. A lecture format can be very appealing to non-native English speakers because there is limited interaction with the speaker, and the PowerPoint slides can support what the speaker is saying. Thus, editing and localizing both the lecture and the slides are important cultural adaptation techniques.

Engagement Features

The instructor can further engage the learners by using engagement features such as polls, chat and whiteboards. While polling is helpful for gathering information, opinions and attitudes from participants, we recommend a cultural review to ensure that the language is clear and to avoid culturally inappropriate questions.

The chat feature provides another way to communicate with the instructor and with classmates. The benefit of chat is that it allows non-native English speakers to participate without speaking. The challenge of chat is that these same participants must be able to type well, and often, fast, in a language other than their native one, which can be difficult.

Whiteboards allow instructors and participants to collaborate on drawings, lists, etc., but they present the same challenges encountered when using chat. The webinar sharing features are more likely to create technical challenges rather than cultural ones, which we’ll discuss below.

Collaboration Features

In contrast to the lecture approach, most webinar platforms offer many opportunities for participants to interact and collaborate. For example, breakout rooms allow participants to work on tasks in small groups in an electronic version of the way it’s done in face-to-face classrooms. However, many learners in non-U.S. cultures will be unfamiliar with this approach and/or hesitant to participate. For example, learners from hierarchical cultures expect the instructor to be the expert and, subsequently, they do not understand the value of a typical American approach to building knowledge and skills using collaborative activities. In addition, using such activities requires concise instructions.

A cultural analysis of the instructional approach can offer best practices and approaches to using the webinar format, engagement features and collaboration features.

Facilitators/Instructors and Cultural Competence

If you’ve ever learned a second language, you are familiar with the challenge of listening to someone speak in a non-native language. What helps us, as learners, is to be presented with simple, well-constructed language supported by gestures, tone and inflection. In fact, you’ve probably analyzed the essence of a conversation in an unfamiliar language, perhaps while watching a movie, simply by watching the gestures and registering the speakers’ tone and inflection. Thus, your instructors should be culturally in tune with your audience.

Unfortunately, many American instructors are unaware or forgetful of this need, especially in the online environment where one cannot see other participants. As a translation agency, we cannot control how your instructors speak, but we can edit content to ensure fast digestion by non-native English speakers. We can also recommend, via a cultural analysis, how to prepare your instructors for the cross-cultural online environment.

Online facilitators require two other skills:

1. The ability to detect cultural issues.
2. The ability to mediate communications between learners from different cultures.

For example, an online instructor needs to recognize that the learners in China are probably not participating in a group activity because of cultural and language issues.

The instructor also needs to provide opportunities for members of all cultures to communicate their ideas. For example, American learners can easily overpower those from Asian cultures simply because Americans have more direct communication styles. It becomes the instructor’s responsibility to offer other venues of communication in the webinar. With a cultural analysis, we can recommend approaches that specifically align to your learners’ cultural needs and preferences. For more information about culture correctness and the online consumer, check out our white papers at Website Globalization and E-Business.

Technology Concerns

We mentioned earlier that webinar platforms could present technology issues. These can occur domestically, but they are more prevalent in an international environment. In many cases, the voice-over-IP (VOIP) provided within the webinar platform to support internet-based conversations is not supported by end-user technologies or by international infrastructure, nor is the use of webcams or streaming media. The use of phone lines often poses additional expenses to the learners. You should be aware of these issues and test them.

We can’t rebuild your technology, but we can advise you on using alternative techniques. In addition, if you plan to use media, we can help you design and prepare culturally appropriate versions.

Conclusion

From the perspective of a localization company, we cannot regulate all of the challenges we mentioned. For example, we cannot control the level of cultural competence of webinar instructors or facilitators. However, what we can do is identify those things that may be culturally questionable. As our customer, you would benefit from a cultural analysis of those materials to mitigate any challenges related to course design before we initiate translation and localization of your eLearning and training courses. We are uniquely equipped to provide cultural adaptation to eLearning that goes beyond looks and language, we address learning.

In our next blog, we’ll review the localization challenges self-paced eLearning.

The post Synchronous eLearning: Localization Challenges appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

One of the most important considerations when designing eLearning content for global audiences is determining how the content will resonate with the cultures of the audiences you’re targeting. You can create the greatest content, but if it doesn’t take culture into account, both in the way it’s delivered and the content itself, it won’t be successful.

As a translation company providing comprehensive localization and translation services for eLearning and training courses, we know that if a customer comes to us, they understand that we’ll prepare their eLearning courses for distribution in other cultures. However, we highly encourage our customers to also take advantage of our cultural auditing service, where we provide recommended modifications based on the targeted languages. This service goes beyond translation and image localization, it looks at how the eLearning content is delivered and other cultural considerations. Let’s take a look at how culture comes into play with learning styles and eLearning materials.

Cultural Dimensions: A Way to Compare and Contrast Across Cultures

Research studies, such as those conducted by Geert Hofstede, have led to the creation of national cultural dimensions. These cultural dimensions are categories of cultural characteristics we can use to compare differences, at a national level, across cultural groups.

Hofstede identified six categories of cultural differences:

• Power Distance: the strength of societal social hierarchy.
• Long-Term Orientation: when you are focused on the future.
• Uncertainty Avoidance: how cultures differ on the amount of tolerance they have of unpredictability.
• Masculinity/Femininity: task-orientation versus person-orientation.
• Individualism/Collectivism: emphasizes the moral worth of the individual or the group.
• Indulgence/Self-Restraint.

His theory is that these dimensions affect our perceptions of other cultures and our willingness to accept their differences. Below, we will address the cultural dimensions that could have an impact on eLearning content.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Hofstede’s dimension of individualism vs collectivism describes the degree to which members of a culture focus on themselves (I, me) or on groups (we, us). In his research, he assigned each country an index score on different dimensions to help us understand how similar or different we are to other cultures. On the dimension of individualism, the United States scored the highest among 50 countries. What this indicates is that Americans perceive cultural values to be the same as others and so we can be blind to cultural differences. Thus, we inherently tend to negate the value of addressing the cultural needs of other groups.

This concept can come into play when our customers design eLearning courses, as they may not take cultural differences into account. We try to put our customers “in the shoes” of their targeted learners to help them understand and accept our recommendations on cultural adaptations for eLearning. This often helps them to appreciate the value of our recommended changes, and subsequently, increase their willingness to invest in those changes.

Power Distance

Power distance refers to how members of a culture expect or accept power divisions. In the United States, we have a low power distance index (PDI), which means that we’re more accepting of the differences in power.

This concept manifests itself in the educational environment. For example, American students are not afraid to challenge instructors, question what they say or approach them as individuals. However, in high PDI countries, such as in many Asian countries, students would not dream of approaching their instructors, let alone challenging them. Instructors are the experts and students are recipients of their knowledge.

In the United States, we tend to expect students to build their knowledge (i.e., the theory of constructivism), and we use techniques, such as group activities, to facilitate this process. In educational events, students from high PDI countries do not accept these activities as useful or valid, they expect the expert to teach them, not to learn from peers or their work.

Culture and Time

When we recommend to our customers that they may need to modify their eLearning activities, we provide explanations as to why this is important and how to do it. We offer key insights into how to create culturally accessible eLearning. Customers should be prepared when they submit courses for a cultural audit, to make post-analysis modifications.

These recommended modifications take time by reworking the content. Another American cultural characteristic is reflected in our attitude towards time: time is money. It can be wasted. We are often in a hurry to complete our tasks, and this is reflected in customers’ drive to move eLearning courses into production as fast as possible. However, we try to illustrate that using a bit more time to make eLearning courses more culturally appropriate pays for the time later with their customers’ satisfaction and acceptance.

Conclusion

When it comes to eLearning events, customers benefit from taking a marketing approach to their online courses by asking: what can we do to ensure quick and eager adaptation of our courses by our targeted learners/customers? We have seen the impacts that making cultural adjustments can have on training materials. Our cultural auditing service provides recommended modifications based on the languages being targeted.

In many cases, this means being willing to:

1. Submit courses for cultural auditing.
2. Adopt recommended modifications that go deeper than translation and image localization.

Our eLearning localization team will also help you translate your eLearning courses and presentations in all your targeted languages and locales.

The post The Key to eLearning Localization Success: Customer Acceptance appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

The University of North Carolina and the Localization Institute has launched one the world’s first Certificate & Certification in Global Digital Marketing & Localization.

This online certificate/certification combines studies in worldwide digital marketing strategies with the art and science of content localization.

Global Digital Marketing and Localization Certification

The program is the brainchild of Dr. Nitish Singh, Assoc. Professor Int. Business at The Boeing Institute of International Business, St. Louis University and Ulrich O. Henes, President of The Localization Institute.

Students can earn the world’s first certificate and certification which combines digital media marketing with localization. Estimated time for completion for the online self-paced courses is 3-6 months with almost 40 hours of online training alone.

Globalization Partners International is a proud sponsor of the program and looks forward to helping students, professionals and GPI’s own staff successfully complete the program!

The program offers classes covering a wide range of digital marketing and localization topics including:

• Global Digital Media Environment : Exploring Cultural, Legal and Logistical Issues
• Global Digital Internationalization: Challenges and Approaches to Succeed
• Global Digital Expansion: Practical Tips on Market Entry
• Global Digital Marketing Segmentation: Tools and Techniques
• Global CRM Strategies: Marketing Automation and Implementation
• Global Digital Media Trends: Open Innovation, Social Computing & Others.
• Effectively Using Global Social Media: Tips and Techniques
• Global Social Media Usage & Localization – Insights from Around the World
• Global Social Media Usage Models-1: Creating Dialogue and Facilitating Transactions
• Global Social Media Usage Models-2: Managing Customer mood and reviews online
• Content Marketing Ideas-1: Storytelling & Blog Management
• Content Marketing Approaches-2: Content Marketing via Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest etc.
• Global Search Engine Optimization-1: Leveraging Keywords
• Global Search Engine Optimization -2: Linking, Mobile and Social Media Integration
• Enhancing Searchability of International Sites for Global Search Engines
• Enhancing Searchability of International Site via Global Navigation techniques
• Paid Search Marketing & Measurement – Key Strategies & Concepts
• Standardizing or Localizing Digital Media – Strategic Insights
• Culture & Global Digital Marketing: Avoiding Blunders related to Symbols, Colors & Values
• Culturally customizing Digital Media Content – A Practical Cultural Customization Tool-kit
• Dilemmas & Strategies for Localizing Digital Media – Finding the Right Strategies
• Writing Content for Global Digital Media – Strategies for Effective Global content Writing
• Localization Concepts & Foundations: Learn what it entails and how to localize
• Internationalization (118n) Concepts and Foundations: Cost Saving Strategies
• Terminology Management & Translation Memory for Global Content Management
• Localization Workflow Management: Practical Insights for Efficiency Gains
• Localization Projects and Automation Management: Tools and Techniques

To learn more and enroll, please visit Certificate & Certification in Global Digital Marketing & Localization.

The post First of its Kind Global Digital Marketing and Localization Program to be Launched in January 2016 appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Websites today need to be findable, accessible and readable from around the world. Your clients can speak any language and live in any locale. Most companies understand they need to be able to author and publish content in several languages. To do this takes the right CMS backed by a team of website globalization specialists who have comprehensive knowledge in deploying a variety of content management systems in order to support multilingual content and multiple language sites.

To help clients get the most out of their CMS investment, GPI has launched a new microsite www.translationplugin.com. The site provides a variety of website localization, web content management system and translation connector information including:

1. Access to live and on-demand demos of translation connectors
2. Best practices for deploying the world’s leading web content management systems
3. Website localization best practices
4. Blogs on a range of CMS and website translation topics

Currently available translation connectors from GPI include:

• Adobe Experience Manager Connector
• Ektron Connector
• EPiServer Connector
• Sitecore Connector

Website localization services can be provided in a variety of ways which align with a company’s established authoring and publishing workflows and available resources.

Workflows may include:

1. Authors and editors retrieving content from and inputting translations into a CMS directly
2. Using XML or other formats to export-import content from a CMS
3. Deploying a GPI Translation Services Connector between your CMS and our Translation Portal

The post Enhance the value of your CMS with a Translation Services Connector appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

GPI will be attending once again the Arabian Travel Show (ATM) which will be held May 5^th to 8^th in Dubai, UAE.

The Arabian Travel Market is the leading international travel and tourism event in the MENA region for tourism professionals. This show attracts a global audience of leading hospitality decision-makers, insiders, vendors, investors -really anyone with an interest or role in the industry.

If you have not been to Dubai, this is a perfect time of the year to visit, just before it gets too hot! The average daily temperature range in May is about 77 – 87 degrees Fahrenheit.

The conference sessions are structured around three theatres:

• Session Theatre (16 sessions)
• Sabre Travel Technology Theatre (17 sessions)
• Exhibitor Showcase Theatre  (8 sessions)

The sessions are always a great part of the overall show, but the heart of ATM is the exhibition hall which this year has over 2,600 exhibitors.  Bring comfortable shoes!

Globalization Partners International® has had an office in Dubai for over 6 years and has developed a strong client base within the MENA region overall. As you can expect, the travel and hospitality industries are very important to this market. GPI has provided translation services and localization for websites, contracts, menus, training manuals, videos, software, and marketing collateral for many of the market leaders.

The ATM is not only focused on the industry in Dubai, but it has a global focus too. There are 55 exhibitors for ski holidays. You will find 75 exhibitors for safari holidays. Considering a trip to outer space? If so, you may be interested in talking with the two exhibitors who can get you there. Nine companies can help you with an artic adventure. This is a one-stop show for all that the industry has to offer.

Source: Gulf Business

The ATM website conveniently provides a list of countries that do not require a visa to enter the UAE. Here is the list:

Europe: United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Finland, Spain, Monaco, Vatican City, Iceland, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein

Americas: USA

Australasia: Australia, New Zealand

Asia: Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong-Kong, South Korea

GCC Countries: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait

If you plan to attend the Arabian Travel Market, it would be wonderful to meet you. Please contact us at info@globalizationpartners.com and our team attending the ATM will coordinate a time to meet with you.

The post Arabian Travel Market Event is Fast Approaching appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

The creation, translation, publishing and of course the global sales of e-books has exploded in the last year. E-book sales have been expanding in the United States as e-books constitute a growing percentage of the overall US consumer book sales market. In 2009 e-books accounted for approximately 2.7% of total consumer book sales but by 2012 e-books had grown to 14.9 % of the global book market.  In terms of dollars, e-book sales revenue reached $3.3 billion US dollars in 2012. These stats provided courtesy of Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

The global revenue from e-books sales is expected to continue to rise with the US leading e-book sales for now, but we are seeing massive growth in both Europe and Asia.

Of course e-books would not be possible without the explosive growth in the adoption of various e-readers that people are buying which allow them to collect e-book libraries and shop online for new e-books. The leading e-reader providers worldwide in 2012 were Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and Sony. Amazon creator of the Kindle currently accounts for approximately 55 percent of the global e-reader market. In North America, Barnes and Noble’s Nook e-reader accounted for 22 percent of e-readers bought in 2012. The Kindle Fire from Amazon reached 5.5 million in 2011 and is projected to reach 27.8 million in 2014.

The benefits of e-book translation for Business

There are several benefits to businesses who invest in digitizing documents into e-books. Some of the benefits include:

1. Accessibility. E-books are more accessible than traditional books and documents. You deliver your e-book to the customer using your website or email interface. It is one of the most effective methods to reach out to your customers offering a vast amount of information with a single click.
2. Cutting Costs. E-books are cost-effective and more reliable than printed documentation. With e-books you can save money typically spent on print and logistics required for traditional books and guides. Most importantly, you have the ability to modify or upgrade your content easily without worrying about the added cost of printing updated editions.
3. Distribution. E-books will help you reach out to customers around the world with many formal and informal channels for distribution. Whether from publishers and distributors like Amazon and the Apple store or from your own company website.
4. Mobility. Customers can read e-books easily on their smart phones, tablets and Kindle devices from anywhere and at anytime.

How businesses are using e-books?

Another growth area for e-books comes from companies who are using e-books for internal and external content marketing and global training. The formats available, rising use of handhelds and tablets and ease of updating e-book content make them ideal for a range of corporate content from global training materials to corporate promotional collateral.

Over the next few weeks we will publish a series of blogs covering a range of topics related to e-book translation and desktop publishing to help you leverage the e-book format for your global content needs.

The post Why Businesses should Consider Translating E-Books appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

Website Translation can be broken down into 14 primary steps which will ensure a company’s new language version websites will attract new visitors and convert them into customers. This is Part 5 in our series on Website Translation: 14 Steps to an effective worldwide website. We will cover three final steps in the website translation process which are:

12.  Basic Online QA & Testing

13.  Search Engine Marketing

14.  Launch Language Versions

You can read the other blogs in the series by following the below links:

• Website Translation: 14 Steps to an effective worldwide website! (Intro)
• Website Translation Quality Assurance and Client Review Process (Two Fundamentals)
• Website Translation: Reviewing Source Files and CMS Workflows (Steps 1-2)
• Website Translation: Launch, linguistics and locales (Steps 3-6)
• Website Translations: Web Content Localization (Steps 7-11)

Step 12: Basic Online QA & Testing

It is critical to include basic website online Quality Assurance (QA) or testing as part of any website translation effort. This includes testing your localized website utilizing required browser/OS combinations to ensure the language versions of your site do not have any linguistic, cosmetic or basic functionality issues.

In general , website testing services vary depending on your needs. There are several types of testing that can be performed including; Internationalization (I18N), Localization (L10N) and/or Functionality testing.

Internationalization Testing is QA or testing that should occur on the source language website to check if the site supports different character sets, different currencies,  time/date formats, etc…  These are examples of issues which should be supported to ensure the site can be translated and function properly in other languages and markets. Then of course the localized site should be tested for the same types of issues to ensure any internationalization programming or configurations that were completed  actually work.

Localization Testing is completed after your website has been localized and tests the website again under specified  browser/OS combinations. Localization testing/QA is to review the website and language versions in context in order to check for any linguistic, cosmetic  and possibly cultural issues.

Functionality Testing is conducted after your website has been localized and tests the site to verify that your website works properly for your target users. Proper platforms, browsers, test cases and test scripts are used to ensure the experience of the target user will be as good as if the website was designed and developed specifically for a target market.

See our previous blog for more information on items that should be checked in a website translation project: Is Your Website Ready for Translation?

Step 13: SEO – Search Engine Marketing

So to make sure your new target-language websites are actually found on the web and to help you achieve better visibility with country-specific search engines,  you need to perform some initial and ongoing Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This may include both organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC), paid inclusions or contextual advertising.

Some of these tasks are actually completed during the previous website localization steps as well.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) steps may include:

• Multilingual keyword phrase research, refinement and localization
• Multilingual Search Engine Optimization and copy writing of main site content
• Multilingual Search Engine Optimization of meta-tags, titles, alt-tags, heading tags, HTML, etc.
• Submissions to major locale (in-country) and international Search Engines
• Website traffic and keywords ranking reporting
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign content localization
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) country-specific campaign management

Search Engine Optimizing your website targeting a specific locale (country + language + geography) goes beyond the process of simply translating keywords into another  language. The Arabic language is just one example of the issues you can encounter when optimizing content and building key word lists for another language, culture and locale; check our blog on Arabic SEO and Localization to see what I mean.  Several countries may use the same language, but with words and expressions that have different meanings based on specific locales. Your website content and keywords need to be professionally localized and Search Engine Optimized for the specific language or region.

Step 14: Launch Language Versions

Now comes the big day when your translated websites are ready to launch. By addressing the 14 steps in this blog series your end result should be a well-planned and executed website translation project with new language versions of your website which can be found, understood and used by new clients around the world!

So to review the entire process, here is the simple animation which summarizes the 14 steps. We introduced this video in the first blog of the series as well!

The post Website Translation: Online QA, Global SEO and Launch appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

For companies who realize they need to translate or localize their website, they should ask themselves “Is our website ready for translation?” And when I say website, I mean the web content management system (WCMS) that serves as the platform for authoring, storing and publishing their website, as well as the content served via the website.

Let’s take a quick test. Look at the homepage for a Yachting Club website. Can you detect any items on the page that would need to be translated or localized in order to function appropriately for visitors from another country who speak another language? This Yachting Club wants to translate their website for Brazil and Brazilians traveling through one of the club’s marinas, and the United Arab Emirates, where Arabic is spoken and there is a potentially large yachting market.

How many items do you see that would need to be addressed before this company could successfully launch and use their website in these new markets for these native language speakers of Portuguese and Arabic? 1..4…10…more than 10?

If you guessed more than 10, then you are right. There are at least 14 items on this website detectable by just viewing the homepage that require localization!

1. Any Search tool/utility needs to be enabled to support different character sets (including European, Asian, and Arabic scripts). This means the search function will accurately perform a correct string comparison for any languages.

2. Input fields must be enabled to allow for data entry in different languages. So if the values of the input fields will be stored in a database, the database will need to be enabled to handle all different characters from all the languages. String concatenation and UI creation at run time typically presents problems. This practice of putting fragmented strings together to create sentences and messages at run time does not always take into consideration the linguistic requirements of the languages into which a product is localized. For example, where in English it is correct to say “Welcome John”, in Spanish this may be incorrect if the User is a woman: “Bienvenido John” versus “Bienvenida Mary”.

3. Some 800 numbers will work only in the United States and so locale-specific country numbers would need to be used and displayed based on the language/locale page.

4. Linguistic, cultural, legal design issues with ALL content:

a. Content should be correctly translated
b. Cultural issues: Content should be culturally correct, maybe even customized
c. Legal issues: Content may need a “scrubbing” for legal issues
d. Design: Expansion issues with languages that are longer than English like Portuguese or need to be displayed right-to-left like Arabic

5. Content may need a “scrubbing” for transactional legal issues. A well-developed, comprehensive IPR and cyber commerce compliance strategy should be a major part of the business plan of any company looking to do business globally.

6. Legal issues: Content may need a “scrubbing” for legal issues specific to adhering to Privacy laws in other countries. The European Data Protection Directive strictly regulates personal data collection, processing and transfer.

7. Graphics may require localization if they are not culturally appropriate for your target locale. This bikini clad lady would be fine for the USA and Brazil but would NOT be culturally appropriate for many Middle Eastern locales.

Before

After

8. Text expands in many languages so graphics should be designed with expansion in mind. Graphics should be created using the “layers” feature in most graphic applications (Photoshop, Illustrator), keeping text and graphics separate so the text can easily be extracted and localized.

9. Visitors to a website from varying locales may be confused by date formats. The format MM/DD/YY is unique to the United States. Most of Europe uses DD/MM/YY. Japan uses YY/MM/DD. The separators may be slashes, dashes or periods. Some locales print leading zeroes, others suppress them.

United States                    09/10/2013

Germany                          10/09/2013

Japan                               2013/09/10

10. Websites or applications that support only one currency need to be adapted to record the currency along with the amount. As with date formatting, currency is not constant throughout the world. A correct culture-sensitive representation of currency needs to take into consideration the currency symbol ($, €, ¥, £), the currency symbol placement (before or after the digits), the negative-amount display (negative sign, use of parentheses) and finally the decimal separator (“,”, “.”, etc).

United States                    ($127.54)

UK                                    -£127.54

Denmark                           kr-127,54

Netherlands                       127,54 €-

11. The format for telephone numbers around the world varies significantly. So input fields and the routines that process information dealing with telephone numbers should be able to handle the variety of formats. Here are some examples:

United States                    (123) 456 7890

China                               1234 5678

France                              01-23-45-67-89

Poland                              (12) 345.67.89

12. Address input fields must be adjusted to allow for data entry that matches mail formats from different countries. So if the values of the input fields will be stored in a database, the database will need to be enabled to handle all different characters and formats from all the languages and countries. City, State, Zip might work in the USA but other countries may have Provinces and not States and no Zip codes.

13. Visitors to a web site from varying locales may be confused by date formats. Again date formats are different in different countries and you want to make sure you can accept and store these formats correctly and of course ship a product or reserve a slip on the right days and months.

14. Iconography should be reviewed for cultural appropriateness.  The “Okay” hand gesture in Brazil is like “flipping someone the Bird” in the USA.

Culturally correct in the USA, but not in Brazil and other countries!

Might look like this in another culture OR country

Thankfully, many of the items above can be addressed out of the box with some straightforward configurations using the right web content management system.  Website design and development teams still need to ensure ALL content is appropriately localized from a Linguistic, Cultural, Legal and Design perspective in order for a site to fully function and be effective for a specific country or user base.

To learn more about which content management systems do a good job supporting Multilanguage websites see:

• Adobe CQ5 and translation: Website Translation in Adobe Experience Manager – Adobe CQ5
• Sitecore and translation: Set up and Management of Multilingual Websites in Sitecore
• Ektron and translation: Managing your Multilingual Website with Ektron 8.5 CMS
• EPiServer and translation: Website Content Localization with EPiServer 7

To learn more about Linguistic, Cultural, Legal and Design issues with global websites see:

• Creating Culturally Customized Content for Website Translation
• Website Internationalization and Accessibility

The post Is Your Website Ready for Translation? appeared first on Globalization Partners International.

This blog is a continuation of our series on the process of translating a website. To read the other blogs in the series, please see:

• Website Translation: 14 Steps to an effective worldwide website! (Intro)
• Website Translation Quality Assurance and Client Review Process (Two Fundamentals)
• Website Translation: Reviewing Source Files and CMS Workflows (Steps 1-2)
• Website Translation: Launch, linguistics and locales (Steps 3-6)

So far in the series we have covered:

• Introduction to website translation
• Quality Assurance
• Review & Approval

1. Review & Analysis of source website assets
2. Best practice multilingual workflows based on your content management system
3. Project Kick-Off
4. Subject Matter Training and Research
5. Content Cultural Correctness Assessment
6. Glossary & Style Guide Development

Now let’s move on to actually translating or localizing the various types of content found on a global website. Remember from our first blog introducing website translation, that really what we are talking about is creating content that is compelling, consistent and culturally correct in order to communicate and conduct business globally.

The basic types of content found on a website may include keywords, regular text, graphics, documents and multimedia. So let’s continue with Step 7.

Step 7: SEO – Key Word Research & Localization

Ideally one of the first types of web content you translate or localize is your SEO keyword list. Your project manager, lead translators and global SEM specialists participate in this step. Keyword translation is really a combination of multilingual keyword research, refinement and localization. Keywords translation and SEO copywriting is the process of providing your keywords in different languages helping you achieve the best results in SERPs in the various search engines used around the world.  The challenge with translating keywords without SEO copywriting, is while it may serve its purpose to convey the meaning of a word, it may not serve its purpose to be friendly and findable to search engines. The ideal result is to use keywords that a potential customer will actually search for in the target locale when doing web searches.

Step 8: Transcreation & Copywriting (Translation, Editing & Proofreading-TEP)

This step is actually referred to in various ways across the translation, advertising and technical writing industries. It is important that a company is clear what they need, and a website translation agency or Global SEO company provides what is expected.

Transcreation and copywriting are used to describe the process of creating content that is accurate, compelling and culturally correct and is common when speaking about marketing communications, web content of various types and promotional videos, etc…

Translation, Editing & Proofreading-TEP are used to describe the process of accurately rendering one language into another and is common when speaking about user manuals, technical guides, instructions, etc…

Step 9: Localization of any Graphics

Graphic localization is the step whereby all embedded translatable text  found in navigation buttons, web art and other web graphics is extracted from the graphics and then translated in order to be placed back in a new “localized” graphic.

The translated text is incorporated into the original graphic, adjusting as required, to create a language or “localized” version of the graphic. The cultural appropriateness of any images and photos are reviewed and adjusted or replaced as required.

Step 10: Localization of any documents

Most websites have a variety of documentation linked from their site such as reports, white papers and brochures all which may require localization. Translating or copy writing and desktop publishing (DTP) of these documents should be considered as part of a comprehensive website localization project.

Desktop publishing (DTP) includes formatting the target language documentation to match the original source documents in terms of layout, fonts, graphics, and overall design and is necessary to ensure your language material all look the same in terms of look and feel and overall branding.  Adobe PDF’s can be created and optimized for screen or print and linked off of the new localized website.

Step 11: Localization of any Multimedia

Many websites use various formats of multimedia which need to be localized as well to ensure a full user experience. Multimedia must be analyzed individually taking into consideration the various assets use to build multimedia.  Audio, video, scripts and any on screen character generation all need to be analyzed to determine word counts and how they were digitized and included in your multimedia.  All multimedia can be localized and tested to play in any target languages.

A multitude of localization professionals are required for multimedia localization including a Project Manager, Lead Translators, Editors & Copy Writers, Desktop Publishers, Multimedia Specialists (audio & video), Voice Talent and Localization Engineers.

The post Website Translations: Web Content Localization. PART 4 appeared first on Globalization Partners International.