By Himani Khera
GILT: Globalization vs. Internationalization vs. Localization vs. Translation
Globalization is now an integral part of our lives, especially businessmen. Businessmen are more focused on building their websites, applications, pages on social networking sites, to reach out globally and adapting the product according to their culture and language. When it comes to get control of international markets, people get confused while distinguishing in between globalization, internationalization and localization. Some might consider globalization and internationalization as synonyms, but there are differences that need to be taken into consideration.
Globalization is a way of interconnecting countries and people affecting all aspects of our lives such as economy, culture, and diversified ideas. It is a strategic approach to the companies which are interested in expanding their products and services to new customers globally. It is composed of Localization and Internationalization. Multinational Companies are one of the examples of globalization. These companies cross all the obstacles to expand themselves and installing their branches worldwide adapting the culture of the targeted customer and sometimes provide the employment in struggling country.
Internationalization means the process of designing and developing a product, website, game or application so they can easily reach their targeted customers and markets that may vary in terms of culture, language, or region. Internationalization is actually a preliminary process before focusing on Localization.
Localization is a process of adapting a product or service to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market. Translation is one of several elements of localization process. This market is mainly focused on software, documentation, web sites and applications.
Translation is defined by the process of communicating the meaning of a text in the language of a particular market. Usually, it is done by professional translators, whether is an agency or experienced freelance translators.
In marketing process, for a product’s marketing, development department would undertake the Globalization stage; gather all the suggestions and comments from around the world to create the best product, taking into consideration the world market and demands. Then, design department would work on the product’s Internationalization and create the best marketing campaign suitable for all markets adapting all the changes. The production department would undertake the Localization process, changing all the parts that need to be adapted according to the local market, including changes to colour, graphics, etc. And, finally, the Translation process will be done to reproduce the campaign to any particular language required for the project.
While looking out for something on google search, or to find out information about anything on google and Wikipedia, pages and contents are available not only in English language but also in other regional and international languages, so that people, worldwide could read the text not only in common and regional language but also in their native language. This would never have been possible if translators would not have been there. Therefore, in the process of Globalization, Localization and Internationalization, translators play a major role as, even today, there are many people who don’t know English, which is a common language. Another example could be of website of Modlingua Learning, which is available in Hindi, English and French.
For the ideas and products of companies, be able to reach masses without any barrier, where language can become a huge obstacle, translators play a vital role by converting the available text in other languages.
GILT is a long-term and never-ending process. As we are developing day by day, number of companies, not only multinational but national and local, will also increase, which will increase the demand of this process. Hence, having a language pair or two in hand, will always work as a benefit for one and other.
Sources:
- https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/aboutlocalization.wordpress.com/2016/01/19/globalization-vs-internationalization-vs-localization-vs-translation-what-you-need-to-know/amp/
- https://blog-english.jrlanguage.com/what-is-gilt-globalization-internationalization-localization-and-translation/
Intern at Modlingua Learning Pvt. Ltd.
http://www.modlingua.com/interns/375-himani-khera-french-english-translation.html
