Translation of software (or software localization) has a few quirks that you need to take into account in order to achieve a software project that’s top quality in every language. This is vital to ensure that all users have the same experience, wherever they live and whatever language they speak.

1- Format of the files:

The first thing we need to do is convert the files that contain code and strings of text. You should use a format that can be processed with CAT (Computer Assisted Translation) tools. These tools protect the code, so that the translator can solely concentrate on the translation of the strings.

One of the formats that’s often used and works really well is xliff (XML Localization Interchange File Format). This a format based on XML and created to standardise localization. It contains a lot of the information necessary for the correct translation of the strings, which are normally translated out of context.

2- Information that developers have to add:

Xliff files have to include a series of tags with information that’s important for the correct translation of the strings. This information would have to include the following, as a minimum:

• Maximum length of the string. This will avoid clipping once it’s translated. If the source language is English, translations normally take up about 30% more space, depending on the language.
• Status of the string. The translator should know if it needs translating, revising, or modifying.
• An explanatory note. Information about the string and where it will appear (whether it’s a button, a menu title…)

3- Screenshots of the original:

Strings are normally sent out for translation out of context. Although developers add information in labels, it’s important for the translator to have access to a screenshot in the source language. That avoids lots of mistakes further down the line and helps to improve the quality of the translation.

4- Validation of the final translated software:

Once you have the files translated and converted back into the original files, there’s one last step: the validation of the translated software. You can do that by using screenshots or the software itself and sending it to a professional translator. You will then avoid errors in length (strings that are clipped), errors in context (strings used in more than one place that should have been translated differently in each case), and errors in genre (when, for example, variables are used).

5- Documentation that accompanies the software:

If there’s any documentation that goes along with the software (help files, user manuals…), it’s important that you translate strings first. You should then create a translation memory (TM) or terminology database, and afterwards translate the documentation using this TM. You will then have  all references to the software itself translated correctly in the documentation.

Translating software isn’t an easy task, but if you take these points into account then the end result will be far better, and customers all over the world will have a better user experience.

How to connect with your ideal client through words

According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, “95% of our purchase decision making takes place in the subconscious mind”. Emotions are what really drive purchasing behaviour, and decision making in general.

According to Douglas Van Praet, author of the book “Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing”, “We don’t even think our way to logical solutions. We feel our way to reason. Our emotions are the substrate, the base layer of neural circuitry underpinning even rational deliberation. Emotions don’t hinder decisions. They constitute the foundations on which they’re made!”.

But, how can we connect with our reader’s emotions? To make someone truly feel something, you’ve got to be speaking their mother tongue. The language of their family. Their friends. Their childhood. That’s the language that has the power to touch their heart, and the language they connect with. For example:

1- What language would you speak to a new-born baby in? Anyone who’s a father or mother knows that when you sing lullabies or whisper loving words, you do it in your mother tongue.
2- What do you say when you get angry? When you get worked up and can’t contain your emotions you probably let out a swear word or two, and they’re sure to be in your native language.
3- If you’ve travelled the world, you’ll know that when you meet someone who speaks your language you quickly form a bond with them even though you don’t know them from Adam, just because they speak your language.

In an article by the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, of the University of Boston, Dr Catherine L. Caldwell-Harris confirms the discovery of the emotional differences between a native language and a foreign one. For example, she says that “bilinguals state that if they swear, pray, lie or say I love you in their mother tongue, it makes them feel different emotions”. She also says that in a European study in which various linguistic combinations were analysed, advertising was considered more emotional when it was written in the recipient’s native language.
It’s clear, then, that emotions govern our decision making, and for words to really touch our hearts they need to be said in our mother tongue.

Do you remember when you got your last smartphone? Or your last PC?

After unpacking/unwrapping it, you probably started to configure it, and as part of this process you maybe changed its language.

Worldwide, we are used to electronic appliances that speak our own language: Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, Czech — you can change it as easily as pressing a button.

But how are these translations done?

Translating the user interfaces of electronic appliances is not an easy task if you want to get it right. It’s not just a matter of translating, but of taking into account the available space in case you need to abbreviate or look for shorter synonyms, the context (in which menu will this string appear?), and the real meaning of the string. Developers tend to use a rather particular language when defining the messages for your phone or printer, for example, which are always easy to understand when they appear in a simple text file.

When you take all this into account and come up with a translation that makes sense, that’s localization.

Localization is translation-plus: it takes into account various different variables (context, length, culture) to find the right words.

All these parameters have to be borne in mind when translating user interface menus; however, they are also important when translating web pages, newsletters, emails for customers — the more context and information the translator gets from the client, the better will the localization reflect the real aim of the original message.

Once upon a time we all thought it would be impossible for humans to fly, or to talk with someone miles away, or to travel to the moon. All this has changed thanks to technology.

We also thought machines wouldn’t be able to translate text usefully, and it’s now long ago that we used to see those funny examples of literal translation, such as “Made in Turkey” translated as “Hecho en Pavo”.

Nowadays, there are still plenty of funny examples; however, most of the automatic translation engines have evolved, and the results have improved a lot.

In cases such as documentation, with short sentences consisting of unambiguous instructions, automatic translation can be useful, as long as the translation is edited afterwards. It can certainly help to save time and money.

However, there are cases in which automatic translation doesn’t yet make sense. Marketing texts with double meanings, texts that show some kind of feelings or sarcasm, where it is difficult to grasp the real intention of the writer, are still a challenge for automatic translation. In these cases, the editor would probably have to spend too much time trying to figure out the meaning of the translation, going back to the original text and changing the final result.

Technology should keep on helping us to get coherent and good translations; however, to make sure the final result is correct, a final check from a human translator will always be needed.

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