Talk:Localization

The creators of this resource have created long page of topics. I suggest creating a subpage link for each topic. If you want that subpage to be a discussion, call it a seminar on the mainspace page. There is no requirement of neutrality in discussion, but comments should be attributed. You may also create individual original research projects. In linking to them, if they are attributed to an individual (or committee), they may include original research and express points of view without violating our neutrality policy. Key is that anyone, if they have an objection to an expression, may create another page to balance it, all neutrally linked from the top-level page.

A subpage link is created in this way: [[/subpage]] will be displayed as /subpage. That is a redlink, indicating there is no such subpage. One may then create the page by clicking on the link, which will open up and edit window for it. Subpage links are really cool, because they are portable. That is, if Localization were to be moved to a different name, with all the subpages, all the links would still work. A custodian can move a complex page hierarchy with a single command. I like to leave in the initial slash to indicate it is a subpage, but it can be suppressed. [[/subpage/]] will be displayed as subpage. Or, of course, one may create a different display as with any wikilink, after a pipe symbol, so [[/subpage|whatever I want]] will be displayed as whatever I want. Navigation through a set of subpages is handled automatically, then. Going down the structure is done through explicity placed links. Moving up it is done by an automatic display of the page above. And at any time, one may create a displayed list of all subpages using transcluded Special:PrefixIndex.

One may create fancier structures, with navigation templates, etc., but the above is trivially easy to understand and apply. --Abd (discuss • contribs) 01:45, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for that valuable feedback! I just created a subpage UA and will move the underlying content there. We'll do the same for all subchapters.

Localization for Latin America

Latin America is comprised of a fascinating and vast landscape of varied languages, traditions and cultures. While the term “Latin America” has been defined in different ways, for the purposes of this article, it will include all American territories located south of the Mexico – United States Border. This extensive area includes Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, a continent once described in Multilingual as the “forgotten country”. In this article, I will attempt to give a descriptive overview of this part of the world, including reasons, strategies and ways that products might be localized in the region.

Although the GDPs in many countries of Latin America do not reach those of European countries, there is a large untapped market in this part of the world based on sheer numbers. According to World Population Review, in 2016, the estimated population of Latin America was 626 million, with the majority of residents living in urban areas. This number approaches twice that of the United States with a population of approximately 326 million. Of the 626 million, approximately 300 million are Spanish-speakers and over 200 million are Portuguese-speakers. Over 100 million members of the Spanish-speaking population, approximately one third of all Spanish-speakers in the Western Hemisphere, reside in Mexico. While Spanish and Portuguese are by far the two major languages, there are a total of nine official languages in Latin America and close to 500 languages spoken throughout the region. The nine official languages are Aymara, Dutch, English, French, Guaraní, Papiamento, Portuguese, Quechua and Spanish. There are additional official regional languages in some countries as well as a growing movement to officially recognize additional languages such as certain Mayan variants, Nahuatl and others.

Spanish

Since it is the most widely spoken language in Latin America, I will first focus on Spanish as a language of localization. In the past there has been a tendency to think of Spanish as a single language that can be universally localized across the entire Spanish-speaking region. This version of Spanish is often called “Latin American Spanish” or “Universal Spanish” although in reality no such thing exists. It is an attempt to make a version of Spanish that most speakers will understand. Indeed, the American movie and TV industries have a past history of dubbing or localizing into two versions of Spanish, “Latin American” and “European”. This seems to have been a cost-effective, efficient way to reach vast audiences. More recently, parts of the video game industry have successfully followed the same trend, although with a certain degree of sacrifice in target user satisfaction. With increasingly sophisticated audiences, however, and a rising pride in national and cultural identities in Latin America, this approach is not viable for many localization projects. If the decision is made to localize by using a universal version of Spanish, at the very least an explanation of the reasoning behind this decision should be included. End users tend to be more forgiving if there is a note stating the decision to use a generic form of Spanish based on a need to widely disseminate the translated information.

On a personal note, I once came across a version of a classic novel that had been entirely translated into Spanish with an explanation of the decision to use an unedited machine translation based on budgetary restrictions. The novel was so poorly translated that portions of it were nonsensical. It was so difficult to read that I finally threw it away after showing it to a colleague who agreed that the translation was not viable. If a Universal Spanish language version is going to be produced due to budget restrictions, be sure that it is of the highest possible quality so as to be widely understood.

Most products should be localized for each market, especially marketing documents such as ads, commercials and brochures. Additionally, it is not always possible to find universal terminology that will work for all countries. Although the task of localizing to multiple specific markets may seen daunting, often only minor changes are required in order to adapt the content from one Spanish version to another. It is important to utilize a Spanish translator or team located in the target region in order to finalize your product.

Differences between versions of Spanish mainly occur in pronunciation and vocabulary, although there are some regional grammatical differences between Spain, Mexico, Central and South America. For example, in Spain, the informal second person plural of “vosotros” is used whereas the formal version “Ustedes” is the more universal term used in Latin America. In some parts of Central America, the word “vos” is used for the second person informal singular, whereas “tú” is the more universal informal version of “you” singular. These pronouns each carry different corresponding verb conjugations. Terminology also varies between Spanish-speaking regions or countries and is constantly in flux. This should be carefully considered when marketing new products or marketing to younger consumers. Although there is a tendency to use “Universal Spanish” when translating dry or technical materials, caution must be taken in this approach. Even technological terms may differ between regions, for example the word “computer” in English may be translated into Spanish as ”computador”, “computadora” or “ordenador” depending on the location. Additionally, some parts of Latin America reverse the comma and decimal point when referring to numbers and others use the English system (2.300,00 vs. 2,300.00). The translation team on the ground should have the required competency to know what the latest trends or terminology are in the target culture.

Several versions of Spanish have been defined according to general regional differences, however political boundaries should also be taken into account when localizing into different countries. Different accents may also be found within a particular country, for example a costal resident of Ecuador will have different speech patterns than an Andean resident of the same country. Because of a certain degree of rivalry that exists between the two regions, if you are primarily targeting your marketing to the coastal region, you should localize for the coast and vice versa. The following regions tend to share similarities in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary:

Caribbean Spanish (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, northern Colombia, Panama)

Andean Spanish (Andean regions of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru)

Central American Spanish (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador & Southern Mexico)

Chilean Spanish (Chile)

Equatorial Spanish (Costal Colombian-Ecuadorian)

Mexican Spanish (Northern and Central Mexico)

Rioplatense Spanish (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay & eastern parts of Bolivia)

Peninsular Spanish (Spain).

In summary, localization into Spanish should, in most cases, be adapted to the target region for your product. Often this will involve minor grammatical and terminology changes for each region. It may be acceptable in some cases to use a more universal version of Spanish depending on the tolerance of end users of the product. Universal Spanish will always sound more dry and impersonal to the consumer, however budgetary restrictions may dictate the necessity to use a more generic version of the language.

Brazilian Portuguese

Brazilian Portuguese is the second most widely spoken language in Latin America. Although different accents may be found throughout the country, there is a common Brazilian Portuguese consumed and understood by all Brazilian-speakers. This is due to a strong nationwide tradition of TV broadcasting in Brazil, disseminated mainly out of the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Due to its geographical distance and other historical factors, Brazilian Portuguese is grammatically and phonologically different from the Portuguese spoken in Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries. For this reason, products localized for Brazil must be translated into Brazilian Portuguese. The exception to this practice would be in the case of artistic expression. A novel written by a Portuguese author, for example, should remain in Mainland Portuguese and would be completely understood by a Brazilian reader. Similarly, music or poetry produced by Brazilian artists would not need to be translated into Mainland Portuguese when distributed in Portugal or other Portuguese-speaking countries.

Different translators should be used when localizing products for Brazil and Portugal. Although speakers fully understand each other across regions, the language sounds quite awkward and unacceptable due to widely varying grammatical preferences across cultures. The language is far enough apart that the text is not easily localized for one country and then adapted to the other. Translators find it easier to translate text from scratch instead of trying to adapt the text from a different version of Portuguese.

Other Languages

There are several other official languages in Latin America. The following is a table of those languages and some related statistics.

Language Region Approximate Number of Speakers Aymara High Planes of Bolivia, Chile and Peru 2.8 million Dutch Former Dutch colonies of the Caribbean 240,000 English Falkland Islands (Las Malvinas) & Caribbean 4 million French French Guyana & Caribbean 7-8 million Guaraní Paraguay & Argentina 5 million Mapudungun Chile & Argentina 150,000 Mayan Variants Belize, Guatemala, Honduras & Mexico 6 million Nahuatl Central Mexico 1.5 million Papiamento Aruba & Bonaire, Curaçao 330,000 Quechua Bolivia, Ecuador & Peru 8-10 million

(Statistics taken from aboutworldlangauges.com. & gala-global.org)

Of course there are many other languages spoken throughout Latin America that do not have an official status. Some of these languages are nearing extinction but it is my hope that steps will be taken to preserve them to the greatest extent possible in order to maintain varying cultural textures and richness in an ever more global, intertwined world.

Consumers

According to a report published by statista.com in January of 2019, there is a rapid increase in the rate of mobile and Internet penetration in Latin America. 54% of Latin American Smartphone users had already made purchases via Smartphone as of 2016. A survey conducted of 2,400 Internet users concluded that 85% stated that purchase information in their native language was critical for purchasing online. The current estimated rates of mobile users as of January 2019 are: Chile – 75% Argentina – 72% Colombia – 71% Mexico – 70% Brazil – 67% Peru – 63% Other – 62%

Populations and GDP (in million USD) by country according to an Andovar 2016 Report.

Argentina 42 million $947,573 Bolivia 10 million $ 69,963 Brazil 203,106,000 $3,263,866 Chile 17,773,000 $396,923 Colombia 47,757,000 $638,357 Costa Rica 4,667,096 $70,974 Cuba 11,167,325 $234,193 Dominican Republic 10,378,267 $138,007 Ecuador 15,819,400 $180,493 El Salvador 6,401,240 $50,944 Guatemala 15,806,675 $119,375 Guyana 784,894 $6,256 Haiti 10,745,665 $13,150 Honduras 8,555,072 $38,420 Jamaica 2,717,991 $25,620 Mexico 119,713,203 $2,125,257 Nicaragua 6,071,045 $27,100 Panama 3,405,813 $80,811 Paraguay 6,783,374 $58,280 Peru 30,814,175 $271,347 Puerto Rico 3,615,086 $125,630 Suriname 534,189 $6,874 Trinidad and Tobago 1,328,019 $40,832 Uruguay 3,286,314 $71,414 Venezuela 30,206,307 $538,932

Conclusions

Although a generic form of Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese have been enough for localization to Latin America in the past, there is an increasing need for individual market specific localization. Ever more sophisticated consumers and the rising pride in national and cultural identities will have an affect on localization and should be taken into account when marketing products to Latin America. Due to the sheer volume of consumers in this comparatively untapped region and the relative ease in adapting Spanish and Portuguese to different regions, there is a strong case to be made for the increased localization of products to specific markets within the region. It is my hope that additional language groups may also be pursued as possible targets for localization in order to preserve the rich cultural diversity of the region.

--Carolpalacio650 (discuss • contribs) 00:44, 16 February 2019 (UTC)

Bibliograpy

5 Things You Should Know About Localization for Latin America by Jacob Stempniewicz https://www.andovar.com/localization-for-latin-america/

The Importance of Localization in Latin America By Lucke Sewell April 18, 2016 http://www.latinlink.com/latin-link/importance-localisation-latin-america

Latin American Spanish Localization – yes or no by Pink Nose Sudios February 3, 2016 http://www.pinknoisestudios.com/latin-american-spanish-localization-yes-or-no/

The Key to a Forgotten Region – Localization for South America by Helmut Oct, 10, 2015 https://lingohub.com/blog/2015/10/localization-for-south-america/

Mobile phone user penetration as share of population in Latin America from 2013 to 2019 published by Statista January, 2019 https://www.statista.com/statistics/218143/mobile-penetration-rate-in-latin-america-by-country/

White Paper on Localizing in Latin American Languages August 19, 2016 published by Andovar https://www.gala-global.org/publications/white-paper-localizing-latin-american-languages

Localizing visuals in marketing content

Image adaptation is an important part of the localization process. Localizing all your visuals is a fundamental part of any content marketing strategy. Global sales and marketing campaigns often include images, especially if what they are advertising are videos such as product demos, feature videos or apps.

Images as words can change from one culture to another as they can carry different meaning for different audiences. Therefore, when translating and localizing visual content for a global marketing campaign, research about your target audiences is key. Images that are taken out of context can send the wrong message.

You need to understand your audiences’ cultural behaviors, cultural norms, and sensitivities. The goal is to offer culturally appropriate visual content to each locale that convey your message. An image that is not localized can be misunderstood or be offensive. This can have very negative effects in a company’s image and thus affect its bottom line. That is why the localization team needs to consider many factors if they want their visual content to be effective, including the following three.

The impact of colors

The different colors you are using in each locale included in your marketing campaign are really important. The meaning of colors can differ from country to country (or culture to culture). The color white, for instance, has a negative connotation in some Asian countries where is related to death while in Western culture, this color can be associated with weddings. Another color that represents mourning and loss is Orange. That is true for the Middle East while in the Western cultures the color orange symbolizes autumn and harvest.

Symbols

Be very careful when using symbols in your marketing materials like flags, for example, as they don’t belong to a language or a specific culture. Simple objects may look different in different cultures. A home or a mailbox can be very different from country to country. A ‘thumbs up’ can have a totally different meaning from one country to the other.

Depictions of people

Images of people need to reflect the cultural values of your locale. An important factor to take into account is the dress code of your specific target market. For example, if your project includes the Arabic market, all the images should reflect the conservative culture of Arab countries.

Always remember that localizing your visual content right could give your brand or project the best opportunity to succeed.

Localization in Africa: The Linguistic Challenges

Africa, the world’s second largest and second most populous continent, is made up of 54 countries that are recognized by the UN, with Western Sahara remaining a disputed territory. There are approximately 1,000 to 2,000 native African languages spread across this large continent. While the former Western colonial languages, French, Spanish, Portuguese and English remain very present, along with Arabic in the north, the common people speak their vernacular or local dialects.

Multiple languages are spoken in most African countries and across borders. Nigeria, for example, claims over 500 languages. While English is the official national language, it is not the language of the people. Three of Nigeria's more widely-spoken regional languages are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Together, they represent the primary language for approximately 81 million people. (See the table below.) With such linguistic diversity, Africans are naturally polyglots, speaking multiple regional languages or dialects. Their languages tend to be associated with ethnic groups and their native language speaking communities rather than with their individual nations. The table below lists 11 of the more widely-spoken African languages and provides a glimpse of how languages are shared across borders.

Language	Number of Primary Speakers*	Countries where it's dominant*
Kiswahili/Swahili	75-115 million	Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, Comoros, Mayotte
Hausa	44 million	Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Togo
Yoruba	28 million	Benin, Nigeria
Amharic	25.8 million	Ethiopia
Igbo	18 million	Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea
Zulu	10 million	South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Eswatini
Xhosa	8.2 million	South Africa, Zimbabwe
Afrikaans	7.2 million	South Africa, Namibia
Wolof	5.4 million	Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania
Sesotha (Northern Sotho)	5.6 million	Lesotho, South Africa
Teswana	5 million	Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe

• This data on the population reach of the languages and the countries that speak them was taken from Wikipedia and Omniglot.

Linguistic Diversity Creates Localization Challenges

Companies that decide to localize for the African market face significant hurdles and dilemmas due to the rich multilingualism and simultaneous lack of linguistic standardization. Many of the native languages are strictly oral languages, and written languages are often not codified. This lack of consistent standardization complicates the localization process for companies, localizers and translators.

African consumers, like most consumers, prefer to use their native language for online purchases. But localizing these vernaculars can be tricky as there are often substantial variances within the same language. For example, a word or phrase from a native language may differ or vary substantially from one region to the next. How does the industry accommodate these many linguistic inconsistencies? Africans may also use one language at home and a different one in the workplace. In that case, which of the languages would take priority for localization?

Despite these many linguistic challenges, major companies have been and continue venturing into the African market. Microsoft has been localizing its operating systems in a growing number of native languages since introducing XP and it has just begun with Azure. Google has localized its products into over 12 African languages. Facebook’s latest machine translation service now recognizes and translates Zulu and Somali into English for the African market. Instagram added Afrikaans to its list of supported instant translation languages in 2016. Challenges remain on the linguistic front, but progress is no doubt being made.

--Gilberte Lockhart (discuss • contribs) 03:02, 5 April 2019 (UTC)

BIBLIOGRAPHY 2016 Instagram added Afrikaans as a language supported by instant translation https://www.htxt.co.za/2016/06/23/afrikaans-supported-in-instagrams-captions-and-comment-translations/

Globally Speaking Podcast 044: The Logic of Localizing African Languages https://www.globallyspeakingradio.com/podcast/podcast-044-the-logic-of-localizing-african-languages

Localization in Africa: A Way to Develop African Languages https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Africa#Official_Languages

Microsoft opens first datacenters in Africa with general availability of Microsoft Azure https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/microsoft-opens-first-datacenters-in-africa-with-general-availability-of-microsoft-azure/

RWS MORAVIA BLOG: Long-tail Localization for Africa: Challenging but Worth It https://www.rws.com/insights/rws-moravia-blog/long-tail-language-localization-for-africa-not-meant-to-be-easy-or-given-up/

Translation and localization practices in Africa: A closer look through the eyes of a translation professional. https://taus.net/think-tank/articles/translation-and-localization-practices-in-africa-a-closer-look-through-the-eyes-of-a-translation-professional