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WhyLocalize?FromTranslationtoLocalization.AnOverview
theborderofitscountry,while‘actinglocal’meanstailoringglobally-oriented
productstofiteachsinglelocalmarkets,involvingthoroughunderstandingof
localhistory,traditionsandcustomsandrespectforlocalcommunity’swayof
life,beliefandperceptions(Morley2002:39-40).
Therefore,inlinewiththemaximmentionedabove,companiesoperatingacross
borderstranslatetheirproductsintootherlanguagesandadaptthemtothemar-
ketofeachcountry.However,undersuchcircumstances,atranslationprocessis
frequentlybecomingmoreofaprocessofcustomizationofthetext,whichisto
bereleasedinagivenlocale.Hence,veryoften,bynotadheringtothedelivery
oftheprecisemeaning,syntaxorstyle,translatorsaretoproduceameaning
soundingmorefamiliarandnaturaltothetargetlanguagegroup.Theprocessof
socalled‘integratedtranslationandcustomization’adaptstextualandnon-tex-
tualcomponents,including,amongothers,language-specificversionsoficons,
images,audio,videoandmusicfiles.
Morethantwodecadesagothe‘look-and-feel’ofthetargetculture,expressed
initslanguageandlocale-specificimages,wasnotthatimportantasitistoday
(Karsch2006:173).However,today,inordertomeetthedemandsofthecon-
temporarymarketsanditsusersaswellastoavoidany‘linguisticfauxpass’,
whichmightpreventfromproperunderstandingofthegivenapplication,portal,
webpage,orresultinanyculturalmisunderstanding,agreatnumberofcom-
panies,orindividualentrepreneurs,arecomingtoadecisiontolocalizetheir
productsandservices.Inotherwords,theydecidetoadapttheirproductsin
termsoflinguistic,cultural,functionalandlocale-specificrequirementsofthe
localmarket(Singh2012:124).
Takingintoconsiderationatraditionaltranslationapproach,localizationispos-
ingafreshchallengefortranslatorsandtranslationstudies.Ontheonehand,as
adevelopingfieldofstudyitshedsabrand-newlightontranslationbyintroduc-
ingareassuchashypertextualityorweblanguages,atthesametimeincreasing
aglobaldemandfortranslationservices.Ontheotherhand,theconceptitself
iscriticizedwithrespecttothemarginalizationoftheroleoftranslatorsand
traditionalnotionoftranslationprocess.Inthelightoftheshortintroduction
presentedaboveandthedelineatedchangesthetranslationsectoristoface,the
followingarticleattemptstopresentthekeyconceptsoflanguagelocalization
andtodiscussitsimplementationfromfunctionalandbusinessperspectives.In
addition,theauthorofthepaperaimsatexaminingbrieflytheroleoftranslators
andtranslationinthelocalizationprocess.
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