LANGUAGE LOCALIZATION SERVICES

Localization enables you to completely adapt your products and messages to a local audience. Read on to learn how ITC Translations, a language localization agency, can help you grow internationally.

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What is localization?

Localization, also known as l10n, goes beyond translation by incorporating a cultural dimension. It allows you to account for local sensitivities and customs to adapt a text, product or software program to a given region and make a good impression on a new market by adopting local conventions.

Localization generally includes adaptation of several elements, including

Measurements (e.g., miles to kilometers)
Currencies (e.g., dollars to euros)
Date, address and phone number formats
Time formats
Graphics
Colors
and more

To better understand localization, let’s look at an example with U.S. and British English. Do you need to translate between these two languages? Obviously not, but you do need to localize between them because there are many differences, such as spelling (e.g., the -or suffix in U.S. English becomes -our in British English), grammar (e.g., the verb burn has an irregular past tense in British English (burnt) but not in U.S. English (burned), terminology (e.g., apartment in U.S. English and flat in the U.K.) and cultural, of course (e.g., people play soccer in the U.S. and football in the U.K.).

Localization is a powerful marketing tool because it focuses on adapting a product to its target audience and its local market. It focuses on what works commercially and accounts for a product’s local consumption habits.

What industries need localization? For what uses?

All industries can use localization once the target audience has been identified. However, localization is especially relevant in the IT sector for websites, apps and software. Did you know that only 25% of internet users use English for navigating the web? In the digital age, translating your website isn’t enough. To reach an international audience and optimize your site’s SEO, you need to adapt everything to the local target audience.

Video games and comics are two other areas that need localization. In the past, many gamers weren’t happy with the way dialog was translated in their favorite video games since they were often literal and word for word. To address this issue, dialogue in many games is now localized so that these games can be exported to other countries. The same trend is taking hold in the comics world. For example, in order to be exported to India, the famous Spider-Man comic had to be completely localized: Indian Pavitr Prabhakar fights in front of the Taj Mahal, whereas his American equivalent Peter Parker fights bad guys in Times Square.

Websites

Web and Mobile app

Computer software

Video games

eLearning programs

Turn to ITC Translations for Your Localization Projects

A localization agency like ITC Translations will always ask you to indicate where your main target audience is located in order to localize translations appropriately. For example, when you want a translation into Spanish, we help you choose the right variant between Spain from Spanish and from South America.

To successfully localize your project, we work with linguists who are experts in your industry, understand the cultural differences (symbols, colors, references, etc.) and translate exclusively into their native language. They collaborate with our localization engineering team, technical experts who are ready to get to work on your sites, software or video games.

Go beyond translation with our localization services! Contact us today to discuss your project.