Sugeng HariyantoEmail: sg_hariyanto@yahoo.co.idSummary-1: Translation and Localization

What is translation?

The word “translation” may refer to three things (Munday, 2001: 4-5). It can refer to the general subject field, the process and the product. The first, translation can be seen as a process. As a general subject field, translation is a discipline which concerns itself with problems raised by production and description of translations (Lafevere in Shuttleworth, 1997: 183). As a process, translation is the process of the changing of original written text (the source text or ST) in the original verbal language (the source language or SL) into a written text (the target text or TT) in a different verbal language (the target language or TL) (Munday, 2001: 4-5). As a product, translation is a written or spoken expression of the meaning of a word, speech, book, etc. in another language (The Concise English Dictionary).

Later, translation experts give their definitions of translation based on the way they see the phenomenon. Nida, for example, defines translation as:

According to Brislin (1976: 1) translation is a general term referring to the transfer of thoughts and ideas from language to another, whether the language is in written or oral form, whether the languages have established orthographies or not; or whether one or both languages is based on signs, as with signs of the deaf.

According to Wills (1982: 3), translation is a transfer process which aims at the transformation of a written asource language text (SLT) into an optimally equivalent target language text (TLT), and which requires the syntactic, the semantic and the pragmatic understanding and analytical processing of the source text.

Translation is the expression in another language (or target language) of what has been expressed in another, source language, preserving semantic and stylistic equivalences (Dubois in Bell, 1991: 5)

Translation is the replacement of a representation of a text in one language by a representation of an equivalent text in a second language (Hartmann and Stork in Bell, 1991: 6).

(Sorry, this is not a complete list of definition.)

Kinds of translation

Roman Jakobson differentiates three kinds of verbal sign translation. This categorization are very often quoted or reprinted in textbooks on translation (Venuti, 2000: 113-118, Muday, 2001: 5, Hatim & Munday, : 124-125). The three kinds of translation are as follows:

1) intralingual translation or rewording is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other verbal signs of the same language;

2) interlingual translation or translation proper is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of some other language;

3) intersemiotic translation or transmutation is an interpretation of verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems.

Generally, the term “translation” is used in the second sense. In this categorization Jakobson uses the word “verbal signs”. “Verbal signs” can be written or spoken. Thus, it covers also the translation of spoken text. In textbooks on translation, the translation of spoken text is usually called “interpreting” (Hatim and Munday, 2004: 4).

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The types of translation can also be based on the purpose of translating the text. There are two types here: inbound and outbound translation (www.languagepartners.com). Inbound translation is done to understand the content of the text. For such documents, “poor” translation will do. For outbound translation, which is done to communicate, the quality standard is higher so as to prevent misunderstanding.

The kind of translation that becomes the topic of the current research is the translation proper, which is done for outbound purposes. The translation proper itself can be identified as several types depending on the nature of the text context, for example, literary translation, medical translation, etc. In information technology era also brings about a new development in the field of translation. And now translators are helped by machine translation (MT) software and computer-assisted translation tools (CAT Tools). The advent of internet technology introduces new types of documents, i.e. electronic document (files) and webpages. The coming of globalization in economic field introduces a phenomena called localization.

Translation and localization

In the information technology era, we have electronic documents. There many kinds of electronic documents used. The use of internet has sped up communication across continents, but it does not mean that translation is not necessary in spite of the fact that more and more people learn, speak, write and read English. As a matter of fact, the volume of translation has increased dramatically in the last fifty years. The globalization in economic field has required promotional literature, technical manual, webpages and many more types of document be translated to various languages at a faster and fatser rate (Hatim and Munday, 2004: 112). Translation has become a big business addressed as GILT business: Globalization, Internationalization, Localization, and Translation.

Globalization, in commercial translation, is used in the sense of the creation of local version of websites of internationally important companies or the translation of product and marketing material for global market (Esselink in Hatim and Munday, 2004: 112). And because English is lingua franca for the world trade, globalization almost involve a “translation” into English. The writer puts the word “translation” in the quotation marks as this process does not only involves translating in traditional sense.

According to Localization Standards Industry Association (www.lisa.org), localization involves taking and making products linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale (country/region and language) where it will be used and sold. Focused on the objects, localization is the process of translating a piece of software or a web site from one natural language to another (www.translation.net). Most of the time, localization involves the "translation" into language other than English.

Localization is first applied for software. Then, it is applied to website. And now, products and/or their documentations to be lexicalized can range from a cooker up to software. When the product is a cook, the document to be localized is the user’s guide or simply the label. If the product is software, the elements to be localized should be the software (including texts within the software), the documentation and Help file.

Translation, in localization, is one of the process. The process might be minor or major one. For software localization, translation occupies only one third of the process and possibly cost (Pym, 2000). For website localization, the portion is higher. And for rice cooker, translation is the dominant process. In other words, the more embedded into information technology the product is, the lower is the portion of translation within the overall process.

For software localization, translation is one of the processes, i.e. translating the linguistic contents. Other processes involve adapting the size of screen dialog boxes, colors, and character sets to result in correct display. This resizing and resetting is necessary as the target text takes different length to state the same information. Indonesian, for example, generally takes around 20% longer than English sentences. In addition, the dress code of the people featured in the

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documents is often suited to the local culture. The phone number and addresses are also replaced with the ones that fit the local market (www.lisa.org).

The process of localization is facilitated by the use of Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) Tools (Hatim and Mundy, 2004: 113). These tools are application software that help translator in translating electronic file of various format types, e.g. html. Such situation necessitates translators to have new competence if they want to take a part in this type of translating activity. Further, the institutions that prepare them also need to design syllabus incorporating this competence.

What Is The Localization Process Like?

According to Milengo Localization Alliance (http://www.milengo.com/cto), a localization project is usually divided into four phases: preparation, linguistic and translation, engineering, and testing. In the preparation phase, a project schedule is drawn up, project team is setup, the product is analyzed and the terminology is researched; pre-production is planned; and glossary is developed. In linguistic and translation phase, the tasks include translating software strings, translating online help; online documentation; Tutorials; Demos; Printed documentation; Incorporating TL screen captures; Disk labels; Packaging; Add-ons.

In the third phase, the engineering phase, the following tasks are done: extraction of text strings from the software; DTP lay-outing of the translated documentation because the text swell; dialog box resizing because of the text swell; adaptation of accelerator keys, tooltips, tab order, menu option, buttons; adaptation of sorting orders in list boxes; compiling of the help files using help authoring tools; localization of multimedia files embedded graphics containing text; Recreation of sound effects containing text.

Finally, in the testing phase consistency is checked against localized software; user interface testing; functional testing; and cosmetic testing.

For website localization, the process is not that complicated; however, the four phases still need to be executed. In preparation tasks, the project coordinator creates the project, setups the project team, analyzes the product and conduct terminology research and then develops glossary.

Linguistic and translation tasks consist of the translation of the online text that support. The texts consist of documentation, tutorial or help pages. It depends on the nature of the website. Sometimes the job only covers translation of the online text containing simple information. Some other times it involves adapting examples found in the text.

The engineering tasks are done before the linguistic and translation tasks. The extraction of the text string from the webpage is done prior to the translation task. Meanwhile, the task to compile the translated pages into the website follows the translation. After the files are put back into the website, the next task, testing, is done to maintain the consistency and functionality of the website.

From the above review, it is clear that technically translation is one part of the four parts of localization.

However, localization has not been in the mainstream of translation theory. According to Pym (2000), the discourse of localization has not developed from translation theory, nor is it an invention of academic linguistics. It comes from practice, perhaps from the best-paid mediating practice of this time. The term ‘localization’ originally referred to the production of software for many languages and cultures, ‘locale’ being a convenient term for a particular configuration of language and culture. Localization would thus mean taking the (usually) American software and rewriting it so that it can work in a different locale. This would involve both translation (in the restricted sense of replacing user-visible natural language strings) and adaptation (adjusting to the local conventions of numeric representation, currency, dates and so on). Thus, in translation studies, localization would be understood as this. For Information Technology persons, however, localization mostly relates to the non-translational aspects, including the necessary re-

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engineering of the program, the changing of dialogue boxes, the re-allocation of hot-keys, the coordination of all the various changes, and the testing of the localized version.

The fact that localization is not in the mainstream of translation theory, does not prevent its success in the filed. There are four reasons, as Pym (2000) sees it, why localization concept is a success in practice. The first, localization is easy to explain to and understand by managers as well as general people. This term brings an aurora of the current economic practice—globalization. Second, the fundamental model is tested and revised in practices, that seek and need little from universities or academic prestige. The next, this practice saves money. And finally, as a consequence of the above, this is a basis for high-pay job market that needs competent language professionals. Further, he says that there are good reasons for a university translator-training school to pay close attention to the discourse of localization, and why it should train localizers and not just translator. Unlike translators, localizers have to be able to do things other than translate. They will have to compile terminology bases, leverage natural-language strings, revise controlled inputs, and so on. A narrow view of translation would leave universities without training its students in this wide range of marketable skills.  

Some people say that localization theory is achieving virtually everything that traditional translation theory has ceased to achieve. Translation, if seen from localization, is the minimalist replacement of natural language strings. This claim might be incorrect, of course. Currently, translation theory has been moving in tune with developments towards text linguistics, discourse analysis and greater attention to cultural determinants. Translation problems are now frequently approach with Skopostheorie and the development of system-based Descriptive Translation Studies. Now, some theorists are on the point of acknowledging that all cross-cultural relations are translational (Pym, 2000a). Thus, the development in translation studies is actually moving congruently with localization; however, the sudden popularity of localization backup up with IT development makes people “tremblingly” say that localization is more than translation in all respects and dumps translation is a sentence-to-sentence linguistic replacement of natural text, ignoring cultural consideration.

Further, Pym (2000), reminds that the concept of localization brings nothing essentially new. Translation theorists have been talking about ‘language and culture’ or ‘the cultural component’ as well as intermediary generic text for a couple of decades. This does not mean it is wise to ignore localization.

Websites

The following are some definition of websites.

- A web site is a collection of electronic pages generally formatted in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) that can contain text, graphic images, and multimedia effects such as sound files, video and/or animation files. (www.designscope.biz/resources/glossary_print.htm)

- A Web site is a collection of Web files on a particular subject that includes a beginning file called a home page. For example, most companies, organizations, or individuals that own Web sites have a single address that they give you. This is their home page address. From the home page, you can get to all the other pages on their site. (www.best-web-design.com/definitions.html)

- A website, Web site or WWW site (often shortened to just site) is a collection of webpages, that is, HTML/XHTML documents accessible via HTTP on the Internet; all publicly accessible websites in existence comprise the World Wide Web. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_site)

From the definitions above, it is clear that websites have the following characteristics:

- it is a collection of electronic pages

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- the pages are formatted in hypertext marked-up language (HTML)

- it contains texts, sound, video and/or animation.

The above features directly show how websites differ from conventional paper documents. Being electronic (not written on paper), the way to write it is different (using HTML codes, and it is possible to embed it with sound, video and/or animation. This technically requires different treatment in translation. Linguistically and/or culturally, the general principles of translation apply.

Based on the frequency of updates, there two kinds of websites: static and dynamic. A static website, is one that has content that is not expected to change frequently and is manually maintained by some person or persons using some type of editor software. A dynamic website is one that may have frequently changing information. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website).

Based on the contents, websites can be classified into the following:

Archive site : used to preserve valuable electronic content threatened with extinction. Two examples are: Internet Archive, which since 1996 has preserved billions of old (and new) Web pages; and Google Groups, which in early 2005 was archiving over 845,000,000 messages posted to Usenet news/discussion groups.

Blog (or weblog) site: site used to log online readings or to post online diaries; may include discussion forums. Examples: blogger, Xanga.

Business site: used for promoting a business or service. Commerce site or eCommerce site: for purchasing goods, such as Amazon.com. Community site : a site where persons with similar interests communicate with each other,

usually by chat or message boards, such as MySpace. Database site: a site whose main use is the search and display of a specific database's content

such as the Internet Movie Database or the Political graveyard. Development site: a site whose purpose is to provide information and resources related to

software development, Web design and the like. Directory site: a site that contains varied contents which are divided into categories and

subcategories, such as Yahoo! directory, Google directory and Open Directory Project. Download site : strictly used for downloading electronic content, such as software, game

demos or computer wallpaper. Game site: a site that is itself a game or "playground" where many people come to play, such

as MSN Games, Pogo.com and the MMORPGs Planetarion and Kings of Chaos. Information site : contains content that is intended merely to inform visitors, but not

necessarily for commercial purposes; such as: RateMyProfessors.com, Free Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia.

News site : similar to an information site, but dedicated to dispensing news and commentary. Pornography (porn) site: a site that shows pornographic images and videos. Search engine site: a site that provides general information and is intended as a gateway or

lookup for other sites. A pure example is Google, and the most widely known extended type is Yahoo!.

Shock site : includes images or other material that is intended to be offensive to most viewers. Examples: rotten.com, ratemypoo.com.

Vanity site (or "personal site"): run by an individual or a small group (such as a family) that contains information or any content that the individual wishes to include.

Web portal site: a website that provides a starting point, a gateway, or portal, to other resources on the Internet or an intranet.

Wiki site: a site which users collaboratively edit (such as Wikipedia). Political site: A website on which people may voice political views. Example: New

Confederacy. Rating site: A site on which people can praise or disparage what is featured. Examples:

ratemycar.com, ratemygun.com, ratemypet.com, hotornot.com.

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