Monday, May 05, 2008

Localization in the Time of Love and Cholera

Localization pops up in some of the most interesting ways. Recently, I was working my way through Gabriel García Máquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera (Spanish: El amor en los tiempos del cólera). The novel was published in 1985, and the English translation appeared in January 1988. The novel deals with a 50-year love triangle set in the late nineteenth century and first part of the twentieth century in an unnamed port city somewhere in the Caribbean.

Fermina Daza, the main female character in the novel, has just married a physician, Juvenal Urbino. The novel’s narrator describes Fermina’s way of interacting with the world as a married woman: “Before she had been married a year, she moved through the world with the same assurance that had been hers as a little girl in the wilds of San Juan de la Ciénaga, as if she has been born with it, and she had a facility for dealing with strangers that left her husband dumbfounded, and a mysterious talent for making herself understood in Spanish with anyone, anywhere. ‘You have to know languages when you go to sell something,’ she said with mocking laughter. ‘But when you go to buy, everyone does what he must to understand you.’”

Because she has married well and has money to spend, Fermina realizes the power of the buyer. Her “mysterious talent for making herself understood in Spanish with anyone, anywhere” is really not so “mysterious” after all. Any potential seller to Fermina should realize the necessity of speaking her language — Spanish — if a business transaction will take place. That is why Fermina says with “mocking laughter” that “you have to know languages when you go to sell something.” Notice the word is sell, not buy. As a buyer, Fermina can make herself understood in Spanish, remaining within the comfort zone of her native language.

But if Fermina were to change positions and become a seller, then her Spanish would not be enough if she moved into markets in other countries. This situation brings to mind the oft-quoted remark by Willy Brandt, former German chancellor (1969-1974): “If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen [then you must speak German].” Fermina knows this — the different roles that language plays if one is a seller or a buyer. Not a bad insight from a novel written over 20 years ago!

Posted by JimHealey on 05/05 at 11:33 AM

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Microsoft launches Language Portal

Microsoft’s newly launched Language Portal contains information for language professionals such as an IT terminology search tool and a localization download site.

Thanks go to Britta Simon, who talked a bit about this at Localization World Seattle 2007 and has told us about the official launch.

The Language Portal “is designed to enable individuals and communities around the world to interact with each other and with Microsoft’s language specialists on matters related to computer terminology” according to their site. Even if you are not involved in Windows translation and terminology, the site is an interesting place to visit to see what Microsoft is doing to improve the localization of products that run on their platform. The site is available in eleven languages with live feedback in more and includes a terminology community forum

Posted by Donna Parrish on 04/29 at 04:46 PM

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

That Faulty Localization Is a Real Killer: Cell Phones

I recall from my days of working on the Turkish localization of Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows the joys of dealing with the famous Turkish dotted i character. Now comes a related tale of what some people are calling “faulty localization” of Turkish cell phones - one with deadly results.

Read on (note: some colorful non-inflight movie language involved)....

A Cellphone’s Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail

The local press say:

The local press has pointed out that the faulty localization of cellphones in Turkey is causing “serious problems” when it comes to certain “delicate words” in Turkish, and they are calling to enhance localization of technology to avoid these mistakes.

Actually, I’d put this down more as an internationalization problem, than one of localization. Either way, it might have been a lot more sensible to have logged a bug against the cell phone manufacturer.

Posted by Ultan on 04/22 at 07:43 AM

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Chief Semiglobalization Officer ™, Anyone?*

OK, been waiting 6 or 7 years for that particular slice of the boloney roll to land in the dirt. Been reviewing the book “Redefining Global Strategies: Crossing Borders in a World Where Differences Still Remain” by Pankaj Ghemawat. 

It’s based on the fact that the world ain’t so “flat” (in the Friedman sense) or “borderless” after all, and that political, cultural, and economic differences abound and will continue to do so for a long time. There’s a lot going in the the book that I’ll cover in the published review in Multilingual.

But is this “semiglobalization” really a revelation to anyone? The people who will read this book will be aware of the semiglobalization (semi? You’re joking) premise already. None of the fancy terminology or models will cut any ice in the boardroom when it comes to obtaining budgets for localization anymore than a PowerPoint slide that says “Pope Not Protestant” and “Bears Spurn J C Decaux Stock Issue”. Does anyone really buy into that EEC/EC/EU old guff about eliminating restrictions on movement of labour and capital and the equalization of taxes and removal of barriers to competition anymore?

Ever tried buying a car in the UK and importing it into the Republic Ireland because it was cheaper to do so? You’re hit with a massive vehicle registration tax by the Irish government. Or try buying an iPhone in the Republic of Ireland and then the same phone 10 yards up the road in Northern Ireland, or in another EU state. Or buying songs from iTunes in different parts of Europe. Consider what’s being revealed by the Tolkienesque Olympic Torch garbage. Or what’s still going on in Balkans. Or what Bono and Bob Geldof are always banging on about.

I was reminded of all this globalization stuff yesterday as my hired car took me to Rajiv Ghandi International Airport in Hyderabad. Passing thousands – and I mean thousands – of people living like dogs on the side of street in cardboard boxes and abandoned earthmover tires is something I’ll bear in mind the next time I’m told the world is “flat”. I’ll remind the source that anyone who calls a spade a spade should be compelled to use one (apologies to Oscar Wilde).

Watch out for my review of Ghemawat’s book in the magazine soon.

* © Copyright 2007, 2008, kisstheblarneystone productions

Posted by Ultan on 04/10 at 12:01 PM

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Hazaar Fundas of Indian-English

Just back from India, where I picked up a wonderful, witty, and insightful book on the subject of Indian-English called “Entry From Backside Only: Hazaar Fundas of Indian-English” by B.K. John.

I believe the book was only published in India and Singapore originally, but it’s well worth getting your hands on a copy through Amazon.com or whatever. It really blows away the tiresome “Hinglish” anecdotes that are constantly recycled at the bar, and explores social, cultural, and political strands that combine to create this hybrid form of the English language.

As far back as 1882, there was an attempt to create an Indian-English dictionary (Hobson-Jobson by Yule and Burnell), which noted:


The words which we have to do taking the the most extensive view of the field are in face organic remains deposited under the various currents of external influence that have washed the shores of India during twenty centuries and more.

Written in a highly entertaining style too.

Posted by Ultan on 04/10 at 10:39 AM

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Saturday, April 05, 2008

Misinterpretation Abounds in Irish Court Rooms

Inspired by Adam Wooten’s blog posting Why is the Media Obsessed with the Cost of Public Translation?, I dug deeper and found a report in the Galway Advertiser about an Irish judge who was “critical of a Polish interpreter’s lack of interpreting” in the court room.

It seems said Judge was “had been watching the interpreter and she noticed she had not translated the breath sample reading for the accused”. Yes, there was drink involved.

This reminds me that court room interpretation in Ireland can be problematic even when English is involved. Quite recently a Chinese lady was in court, on the east coast of Ireland, over a traffic accident when her car had collided with a telegraph pole. On hearing that she had struck a pole, the judge questioned her: “And did you make any effort to apologize to the Polish gentleman concerned?”

That said, very often media criticism of public sector translation and interpretation owes more to political bias and prejudice than to any concerns with transparency into costs and value for money. However, there are times, when you have got to wonder....

I’m sorry, but that’s not worth paying for. Unless it’s coming out of the mouth of Mike Myers in the next Austin Powers movie..

Posted by Ultan on 04/05 at 11:04 AM

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Another Blog of Interest: T&I Business

Check out Adam Wooten of Elanex’s T&I (Translation and Interpretation) Business blog.

Adam tells us it’s a blog “for the Business & Technology of Translation, Interpretation, Localization, & Other Related -tions.”

Adam also outlines the main findings from the Alternatives to SDL/Idiom session at the Localization UnConference, which he moderated.

T&I Business is a link well worth adding into your Blog Roll.

Posted by Ultan on 04/02 at 02:58 PM

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Der Mundo, New Easy to Use Multilingual Blogging Tool

As he mentioned at the SV Localization UnConference Brian McConnell of the Worldwide Lexicon (see previous Blogos posting), has announced Der Mundo, a new, easy to use multilingual blogging tool.

This is a free hosted blogging service, as easy to use as Twitter, with the WWL community translation tools built in. More information is available on how to sign up and use it at http://blog.dermundo.com.

Brian tells us:

With Der Mundo, it’s easy to sign up and start writing. The service auto-detects the reader’s language preferences and displays translations if present, or invites them to contribute. You can use it as a standalone service, or export RSS to your favorite publishing system.

I’ve signed us up for it - and will revisit as soon as this work stuff is out of the way...

Posted by Ultan on 03/28 at 03:20 AM

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Basque Language Craiglist On The Way

Craig Newmark from Craigslist tells us that a Basque version is on the way. 

Craigslist is already available with Spanish, French, Canadian French, Portuguese, Italian and German language versions.

As for Klingon...

Posted by Ultan on 03/28 at 12:45 AM

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Community Translation Ain't FREE Translation

There was a great session at the recent Localization UnConference on the subject of Community-based localization/translation.

Janice Campbell, a Globalization Manager at Sun (Janice’s Blog is here) made it clear that it must not be seen as free translation. The community must be invested in, developed, nurtured, communicated with constantly, and supported with facilitators and tools (check out the NetBeans Localization Wiki). There is therefore a time, effort and resource cost to this. What kind of rewards are expected by such translators? Never give money. Instead, kudos, invites to dev conferences, t-shirts and other swag, advance beta previews, and so on…

I expressed the fear about switching to a Web 2.0 participative community model of translation based on the analogy of throwing a party and nobody turns up. Janice countered this by asking how we’d feel if we were invited to a party and there was no food, drink, or host present. A really great point.

Seems like the real question is how to create, foster yes, even manage community-based contributions to the translation effort so that it scales and is persistent over time. Could there be a relationship between the type of company and nature of its products and the long-term success of the model? Comments welcome.

Very often, senior - and not so senior - management see community translation as a free option, which is the wrong way to approach this. But then, we’ve also seen how the cost-savings aspect of the outsourcing model has come back to bite many an executive in the rear.

Posted by Ultan on 03/26 at 12:42 PM

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Google releases MT and Lang Detection API

I see from the Google Official Blog that they’ve rolled out something called the “Google AJAX Language API - Tools for translation and language detection”.

You can read more about it here.

Although the tool release is aimed at developers, giving them the capability to “translate and detect the language of blocks of text within a webpage using only Javascript”, it will be interesting to see where this leaves Google’s much vaunted “volunteer” translation effort for “other” languages.

Posted by Ultan on 03/26 at 08:35 AM

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Friday, March 21, 2008

Localization Project Management Blog Of Interest

I met John White of 1-for-All Marketing Inc , based out of San Diego, at the Localization UnConference. John reminded me about his localization project management blog - he’s been maintaining it for a few years now.

You can check out John’s blog here.

If there are other blogs of interest, then let me know.

Posted by Ultan on 03/21 at 10:55 AM

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