Space — Why Translations Need Room to Breathe
Every living thing has a visible physical boundary — its skin — separating it from its external environment. This visible boundary is surrounded by a series of invisible boundaries that are more difficult to define but are just as real. (Hall, 168)1
In the field of Cultural Studies, the notion of personal space and physical boundaries is referred to as cultural space. Depending on where a person lives, the space or distance that is acceptable in social situations can differ a great deal. In a way, the same can be said of different languages.
For example, an English print version of an aviation user manual weighing 40 oz (approx. 1.13 kg) would easily weigh 52 oz (approx. 1.47 kg) if exactly the same content was translated into German.
In the translation industry, it soon becomes very clear that some languages need more space than others to express the same content and meaning. Nowhere is this more obvious than localizing content for mobile, where space is extremely limited.
When it comes to design and user experience, this space issue raises some challenging questions:
How much space do we need for localized versions of the app? Does one size truly fit all? Should we create dialogs and screens that adjust dynamically? If so, how would they look? What happens to a button label if the text expands? Will it move or shift or wrap? Will it be clipped? If so, where — at the beginning, in the middle, at the end?
A very general rule says that 30% of space should be added when translating from English into other languages. Of course, that number varies from one language and use case to another. Using German as a source language would require less space for many target languages (compared to the German version), for example. And the shorter the text, comparatively larger the space that may be required.
Here are some examples:
English: Playlist
German: Wiedergabeliste
English: Add
German: Hinzufügen
Russian: Добавить
English: Edit
German: Bearbeiten
Italian: Modificare
Here’s a few more examples to drive the point home:
English: New!
French: Nouveau !
That’s 9 characters instead of 4, so more than double.
English: Now!
French: Maintenant !
That’s 12 instead of 4 (three times as long!). And watch the space between the last letter and the exclamation mark. No, that’s not an error, but how it’s supposed to be in French according to French punctuation rules. (This is also why keeping punctuation within the string to be localized is imperative.)
I could go on forever…
This is, by the way, the reason why putting text into narrow columns should be avoided by all means. You will most likely end up with more than one line for the target language which might wrap strangely or worse yet, break the layout. A better approach is to use wider rows to give the text more space to grow without spoiling the layout.
Neither do you want to omit information or use abbreviations to make more space. If information can be left out, be sure to do that in the source as well. Keep it short and concise and if the message is still conveyed appropriately, move on.
English is just sooooo very economic and efficient and other languages are, well, they need more space to evolve properly. As a general rule, when translating from English into other languages, keep in mind that the target languages need “room to breathe” in order to express the same information and meaning.
Footnotes
1. Hall, E.T. & Hall, M.R. Key concepts: Underlying structures of culture. In J.N. Martin, T.K. Nakayama & L.A. Flores (Eds.) Readings in intercultural communication: Experiences and contexts. (pp. 165–171). USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
