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Actual models of linguistic localization in the field of IT and digital communications. Part 1

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis will end in the foreseeable future, and software and digital companies will rush to conquer foreign markets with renewed vigor. And at the same time, the need for localization, including language, will increase.

Analysts are confident that in the next two years we will expect a serious increase in the number of export-oriented IT companies, with the share of foreign sales in the total turnover not lower than 60%.

In 2019, compared with the previous year, the volume of foreign sales of software and services for its development by Russian companies grew by 15% and reached $ 11.3 billion, and service companies continued to maintain their positions in the ranking of 100 leading service companies in the world.

For us - EGO Translating Group of Companies - this issue is of great interest, because, on the one hand, we are a developer of specialized IT solutions in the field of linguistics and natural language processing (Natural Language Processing) under the EGOTECH brand, and on the other hand, one of the areas business is associated with the provision of language localization services (brand EGO loc).

Before proceeding to the consideration of relevant models of language localization, let's clarify what localization includes: translation and transcription of textual information; adaptation of graphic elements, currency symbols, date format, addresses and phone numbers, choice of colors and many other details, including a review of the physical structure of the product. All these changes are carried out in order to avoid possible conflicts with the local culture and population and to penetrate the local market, adapting to local needs.

How to optimally build the localization process for the target audience of foreign markets? What models and formats are more efficient today? What are the main difficulties of localization? What mistakes should novice exporters avoid while introducing the product to foreign markets?

With these questions, we turned to representatives of export-oriented companies - leaders of various areas of the IT industry and digital communications. We asked the participants in our interview to talk about the main export markets in which they operate and how the localization process is built.

Ilya Blair , Deputy CEO for Software Development First Line Software :
Our main development center is located in St. Petersburg, and offices are also located in Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, the Czech Republic (Prague, Brno) and the Netherlands. We have many customers in the USA, Europe and Russia, but this is not limited to geography. For Australia, we are conducting a major medical project, we are trying to conquer Africa.
Ilya noted that often in the projects of Russian commercial customers (non-state projects) localization is initially present, with the aim that users of solutions can be outside of Russia.
Given the customers' use of their product on the international market, we often create and coordinate the product in English, very often the customer already provides the specification in English. When the English version is ready, we issue resource files for translation, where the English term is already associated with the national (local) one. Resource file - a file with all the terms that are present on the screen: the name of the buttons, menu items, error messages, tooltips. The client checks this file. For us there is no technical problem to realize multilingualism.
Ekaterina Zabelinskaya , director of business development in international markets "Reksoft" (the company specializes in custom software development for large customers).
Our main countries of presence: Russia, USA, Germany, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland. Reksoft has been working with international customers for almost 30 years, including in the development of products that require localization not only in English, German, etc., but also in relatively rare languages ​​such as Portuguese and Chinese.
She gave an example of a localization project for the Artipic graphics package. The project was initially developed in English, then adapted and translated into localization languages, including Russian. For localization, local specialized specialists were employed in each language, working directly in the field of graphic design and photography.

In one country, Rexoft employees specially trained local translators to work with Photoshop so that they were as immersed in the project terminology as possible. At first the product manual was translated, in parallel there was a translation of the keyword tables. With a slight shift, work was underway to translate the product’s functionality with all screenshots from English into the localization language. After the translation, work was done on loading text with simultaneous editing of screens, since different languages ​​require different spaces for the required text. Further, the product was tested internally by specific translators on specific user cases and tasks. After making the changes, testing was conducted on a limited group of users. This was the second “pilot” test for future consumers.Reports were received from them in two directions - wishes for finalizing the product functionality and comments on linguistic translation. After making all the changes, the product was released to the appropriate market.

Julia Alexandrova , Head of Localization and Copywriting at JetBrains , works in the Munich office of the company (JetBrains is a manufacturer of professional software development tools, including the Kotlin programming language).
Our products are used by programmers in 213 countries and territories around the world. When choosing languages ​​for localization, we are guided by the needs of the markets of our products, the importance of languages ​​in the world, the requests of our users, and pay attention to the plugins for localization of our products created by communities. The need to contact the client in his language certainly exists.
The expert also noted that recently there was an opinion that developers all over the world speak English, and therefore there is no need to localize products for programmers. However, now the barriers to entry into the profession are reduced, you can become a programmer by completing courses, the level of knowledge of English can be very different.

The localization and copywriting team at JetBrains is one and a half years old. During this time, localization processes for marketing tools (website, newsletters, etc.), as well as interfaces of a number of products, were introduced. Now, when creating code, developers think about internationalization, interface elements are taken out to separate resource files and localized.
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Mikhail Kovshov , founder of CITYLIFE (CITYLIFE is an ecosystem for life and business, a range of services that help people make profitable purchases, and companies to attract new customers).

Mikhail noted that the topic of localization became popular one and a half years ago, when the first foreign company owners began to use the brand’s products, although the companies themselves were located in Russia. Currently, localization is carried out in the languages ​​of 8 countries: Armenia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan. The three leaders are Kazakhstan, Armenia, Germany. Service (marketplace) implies working with dynamic content. The localization model is based on the fact that a business partner independently conducts its content on the site.
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In addition, CITYLIFE is now launching its own messenger (https://citytok.one/) with a pronounced theme of localization. Inside the messenger there is a core of artificial intelligence that adaptively translates the user's message into 20 languages. Moreover, the core is self-learning: it supplements itself and even writes slang.

Olga Petrova, CEO of Traffic Isobar (a full-service digital agency, part of the Dentsu Aegis Network Russia communication group and is part of the Isobar global network - the largest international digital marketing network that unites over 100 agencies in 39 countries of the world).

Olga noted that the specifics of the Russian clients of the agency is that they most often go to the former CIS countries and to those who speak Russian. Therefore, half of the content is in Russian, half in the native language of the target country. Also, requests come from Russian representative offices of global international clients or from global international advertising agencies for the localization of sites, client applications, and content for social networks in Russia.
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What are the main difficulties in implementing localization? What is the principle of searching for artists?

Ilya Blair (First Line Software) noted several points that need special attention:

1. The need for translation without taking the context off. Even if translators understand the field of IT, a poor-quality translation can often be obtained in terms of professional logic.

Therefore, a phased localization chain is as follows: the work of a translator, who is necessarily versed in IT; proofreading by a native speaker; additional verification and, if necessary, final adjustment (replacement of some terms) by the development team.

2. Not complexity, but rather a feature that we, as a company with many years of experience in Agile, have long been accustomed to, are situations where you need to make the solution itself and its localization in parallel. Then the work is done in agile mode: there is a layout / design of the interface in English, and when localizing it is necessary to focus on the design.

3. Of course, there is a specific development of mobile applications.
On the web, we can make a small button where, when you hover over it with a mouse, a tooltip pops up. This is not the case in the mobile application, and we try to use icons, infographics. Quite often, when opening a mobile application, there are several pages of instructions with textual explanations. This is not directly related to the translation, but this is an approach to make life easier for the user.
Also, according to the expert, as a whole, the main focus in localization is on the English language, localization into other languages, at least European ones, is often not in the first priority, since English is still the main language of international communication.
There is always a specific release date, and developers focus on the main thing, on what release cannot be without. Later in subsequent releases, they will solve problems of the next priority, as well as respond to user reactions and requests.
Ekaterina Zabelinskaya (Reksoft) believes that the main difficulty is associated with the creation of a pool of specialized specialists for the product translation scheme adopted by Reksoft. The second is localization into some languages, for example, the localization of a graphic package into Brazilian Portuguese, since there are no specialized terms used in image processing programs in this language. This is due to the fact that such products in Portuguese do not exist; in a professional environment, local designers use versions of programs in English or French.

Julia Alexandrova (JetBrains)explained that JetBrains has several translators on staff. In addition, the translation company collaborates with various vendors and freelancers. To select vendors and freelancers, a standard testing procedure has been launched: a test task is issued, the results are evaluated by internal experts. Based on the test results, a decision is made.

In addition, last year, JetBrains announced the possibility for users to add languages ​​and participate in the translation of the YouTrack bug tracker interface and received quite an active response from the community. Users connect to an open project and localize the product. All translations are edited and approved by company experts.

Mikhail Kovshov (CITYLIFE)considers it extremely important to create an effective localization model based on the characteristics of the business: selecting reliable partners and creating a high-quality web resource suitable for localizing.
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The founder of CITYLIFE advises everyone who plans to enter the international market, first of all, to make their web resource on a ready-made engine specifically for localization purposes.
On a samopisny site it is inconvenient to edit, manage, or change some things. The production of the product is completely stopped, budgets for each language are incredibly increased, there are a huge number of errors, you have to translate the same text 10-15 times. It all frustrates and takes a lot of energy.
Olga Petrova (Traffic Isobar) emphasized that the issue of global intercultural differences, especially with visual materials, is quite acute.
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Olga noted that Traffic Isobar cooperates with a pool of trusted professional agencies in the field of translation and localization. Traffic Isobar does not hold tenders, since the price level of plus / minus is the same for all performers, it is rather about terms that are “the day before yesterday”, as in any advertising business.

To be continued.

In the next part, you will learn about whether terminology databases are maintained in companies and whether translation memory is being cleaned, and what the choice of the localization model itself depends on.

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