What is Localization? (A Perspective from the Language of Philosophy)
Philosophers of language think there is a relationship between language, the world, and our minds. In this essay I investigate how localization fits into framework of the philosophy of language.
Language and Mind
One of the purposes of language is to connect our mind with the external world. Imagine an English man, Bob, who discovered a crunchy red fruit with a hue of yellow. He delights in its flavor and wants to share with his friends and decides to call it an “apple.” This word is what connects Bob’s mind to the crunchy red fruit in the world. Now with “apple,” Bob can connect his mind with other minds, such that when his friends see a red crunchy fruit, they would know that is the apple Bob was talking about.
One day Bob traveled to France and wants to buy an apple. He points to the same red crunchy fruit and says “apple.” The fruit vendor responds “pomme?” Bob nods and notes that the same object in the world can take on many forms in different human languages: in English, apple; in French, pomme; in Chinese, 蘋果. We can thus say that the purpose of translation is to connect the minds that speak different languages to the same things in the world.
Localization and Mind
The enterprise of translation may have been as early as language itself. But the term “localization” is relatively new, as is shown in Table 1. Among the many meanings of localization, the language industry uses localization to emphasize the action of adopting non-textual as well as textual elements so that users of a certain locale would be able to understand and use the product easily.
In the 80s, when tech companies were trying to sell products to an international audience, they realized that just translating words is not good enough. Apart from language, a good product requires taking care of the non-textual elements, such as font size, text expansion, truncation, pictures, color, script direction (left to right and right to left), and anything related to culture. The list goes on.
The goal of localization is more specific than translation: while translation seeks to connect minds that speak different languages to the same things in the world, localization aims at using language to connect the product, as a specific object in the world, to the minds of the target audience.
Companies have more target audiences when they want their products to be sold in more markets. The more a product is tailored for a specific audience, the more successful it will be. This is why some companies offer so many locales for their services. Take Chinese for example, ISO 639 lists 10 locales for Chinese (if you think 10 is a lot, English has 106 in the same ISO).
Companies that want to enter the Taiwan market probably shouldn’t provide Taiwanese users something translated for Hongkongers, and vice versa. Providing a locale is showing respect to speakers of that locale, while not providing a locale is certainly one way of telling people that they are not being valued as potential customers.
The Place for Localization in Business
Long gone are the days when customers would learn a locale or even a language just to use a particular product. Nowadays businesses need to court costumers, and due to fierce competition, companies desire every edge they can have.
Language service providers (LSPs) are here to provide that edge. Any proper LSP would have localization experts who understand the importance of translation as well the culture specific to each locale to help your company break through the market.
If you need translations from English into Traditional Chinese, 1UP Localization Studio can help. Led by a veteran gamer with a master’s in philosophy from Taiwan’s most prominent university, linguists at 1UP can deal with any language and cultural issue related to Traditional Chinese. Got any questions? Ask now!
