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TRANSLATION VERSUS LOCALISATION
By Bert Esselink 60
Most likely, you will have heard or read about terms like localization
and globalization. Apparently the whole world is globalizing and we are all
localizing... but where does that leave translation? Is localization a new,
hyped word for translation? Is localization a subset of translation, or vice
versa? Are any translators working in this so-called localization industry, or
is it just techies? As a trained translator and author of A Practical Guide to
Software Localization, many people have asked me the same question:
"What's the difference between localization and translation". In my first
contribution to tranfree , I will try to answer this question as clearly as I
can, realizing it's just one more theory... To compare translation with
localization, I'm using the following categories:
Activities
- activities
- complexity
- adaptation level
- technology used
Traditionally, translation is only one of the activities in projects where
material is transferred from one language into another. Other activities that
can be distinguished in traditional translation projects include terminology
research, editing, proofreading, and page layout. In localization, many more
activities have been added to this list. Examples of activities in localization
which are not necessarily part of traditional translation are multilingual
60 Bert Esselink, “Transaltion versus Localisation”, Tranfree, n.10, 2000.
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