By Ailén Denise Rodríguez
Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. It is an approach to business strategy that aims to address all of the logistical and organizational challenges an enterprise faces as it expands its supporting content, assets, and message across cultures and markets to new clients, globalization incorporates internationalization and localization to achieve this goal.
Internationalization is the designing of a product in such a way that it will meet the needs of users in many countries or can be easily adapted to do so. Internationalization might mean designing a website so that when it is translated from English to Spanish the layout still works. For example, many words in Spanish have more characters and therefore take up more space on the page in Spanish than in English. This process requires a combination of both international and technical expertise and generally involves both deploying new systems and re-engineering existing ones.
Translation is the transmittal of written text from one language into another. Translation is the action of interpreting the meaning of a text, and subsequent production of an equivalent text also called a translation, that communicates the same message in another language. A translation must take into account constraints that include context, the rules of grammar of the two languages, their writing conventions, and their idioms. A common misconception is that there exists a simple word-for-word correspondence between any two languages, and that translation is a straightforward mechanical process. A word-for-word translation does not take into account context, grammar, conventions, and idioms.
Localization means more than just translating a message or text. It is about making a whole product tailored to users everywhere. Localization, in the world of information technology, means translating and adapting a product or service to a particular language, culture, and geographic market. And there are two main aspects of that. One of them is stylistic, in which the localizer have to make sure the language tone used is appropriate for each local culture. The other one is the technical aspect, in which the localizer may have to make changes to things like date and time formats, alphabetization or even the direction of reading to make them appropriate for the language he/she is localizing into.
Translators play an essential role in all these processes. However, it seems to me that the most important of these processes is localization. It is not correctly translating the content of a text without taking into account the audience or receiver of the message. If a translator fails to do so, the client might lose interest in the text or product because he/she doesn’t feel satisfied. Globalization and internationalization are also important. Internationalization will make easier for a text to be localized anywhere. And globalization will make faster the process of reaching the client and his/her needs.
By knowing Spanish and English, in my experience, I can understand both languages and the superficial content of a text. However, I lack knowledge regarding the specific needs of the English clients. Although I could read and find information about their culture, interests, manners, and beliefs, I will never fully understand the whole native English feelings, because I am not one of them. Anyway, I think that any translator should seek for knowing and satisfying the clients’ needs, i.e. to make all the necessary searching for approaching their product as close as possible to the clients' likings, in order to achieve an efficient and excellent goal.
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