Localisation: A Newcomer’s Guide

本地化:新手指南

2019-08-28 11:01 insight video interpreting

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Localisation is an integral element of Language Insight’s translation service – but if you aren’t familiar with the concept of localisation you won’t recognise its value. So, we felt it was only right to provide you with a quick and easy guide to localisation in translation. If you’re struggling with the concept of localisation, the best way to understand it is to put yourself in the shoes of a holidaymaker. Where are you going? Well, for the purposes of this blog post, your destination is the USA. The reason for this is that the official language of the United States is English, just as it is in the UK where Language Insight’s head office is based, so tourists heading there won’t experience any language barriers. However, a language barrier is not the only factor that can cause points to get lost in translation. Let’s say you have just touched down in America and, after checking into your hotel, you fancy a bite to eat. You’re not after anything fancy and so pop into a branch of a chain restaurant, like Pizza Hut. Now, in the UK when your meal is over and you’ve settled the bill, you might leave a small amount of money for your waiter to show your appreciation for the good service (if it was good service). Typically British diners will leave anywhere between a small amount of change to ten percent of the bill as a tip, but they might also leave having not paid anything. However, this sort of behaviour is unlikely to go down well in the US – particularly New York. In Manhattan, diners are expected to leave a tip, and this is often stipulated on the bill. Some restaurants will even provide a guide for the customer, but the general rule is that you tip at least 20 per cent – and more for good service. If you really felt the waiter did a bad job, even then it is expected you will leave a ten percent tip – as well as filing a complaint. Tipping the British way in New York is unlikely to go down well. So, you finish your meal and settle the bill before walking back to the hotel. Later on, you decide you would like to head to a different part of the city to have a drink. In the UK, you would most likely ask the hotel receptionist to book you a taxi with a company the hotel regularly uses. However, if you’re staying in an American city you will probably be directed straight outside to flag a cab instead. Don’t forget, your driver will be expecting a tip too – usually of 30 per cent. During your visit to the Big Apple, you’ll rarely have to worry about trying to communicate in a language you don’t speak, but there are other things that could trip you up. As you can see from the above examples, just because you speak the same language does not mean you’re on the same page as the person you’re speaking to. So, can you have translation without localisation? The answer is you can – but you probably shouldn’t. If you have been in charge of coordinating a market research project taking in focus groups in different countries, you will be presented with results recorded in a language that you don’t understand. You could run the files through a machine translation tool – after all, you’ll get a speedy result and it’s free or low cost. However, whether the translation makes any sense is another matter. Certainly, the information you get back is unlikely to be reliable enough for you to trust. The reason for this is that it has not been localised. Just because you’ve changed the language from one to another does not automatically mean you’ll understand the answers, just like you can be speaking the same language as a person in the US but there are still plenty of cultural differences that could cause a gap in communication. In order to ensure the interviews you have collected contain information that will be valuable to you moving forward, you need to ensure they are translated and localised. Members of your focus group are likely to have said brand names, slang words or idioms or mentioned cultural customs that you aren’t familiar with. A basic machine translation will not make things any clearer, but hiring a professional human translator will. Translations should always be done by someone working into their native language. A French document you want translated into English, for instance, would be given to a professional translator whose mother tongue is English and who is fluent in French. Any slang or colloquialisms mentioned in the text or any customs that would be unfamiliar to an English reader will therefore be explained in the English terms that provide the closest match or description. As an English person in New York, having Google Translate on your smartphone won’t help to explain the tipping system. Imagine how useful it would be to have a New Yorker with you to let you know how much you are expected to tip, or where best to get a taxi from once you have finished your meal? They provide that cultural insight that a computer program just can’t. Because you won’t risk offending a waiter and will know how to get a taxi quickly, you will have a better night than if you weren’t equipped with this information. Similarly, by getting back a transcript of the focus group interview that has been translated and localised, you will have a much more reliable source of information upon which to base your business development strategy. We hope that’s made the subject of localisation a little easier to understand. Next time you require a translation, be certain that localisation is at its heart.
本地化是 Language Insight 翻译服务的一个组成部分,但如果你不熟悉本地化的概念,你就不会意识到本地化的价值。因此,我们认为,为您提供快速、简便的翻译本地化指南是正确的。 如果你正在努力实现本土化的概念,最好的理解方式就是让自己穿上度假者的鞋。你去哪儿了?好吧,为了这个博客的目的,你的目的地是美国。 原因是,美国的官方语言是英语,就像 Language Insight 总部设在英国一样,所以前往那里的游客不会遇到任何语言障碍。然而,语言障碍并不是导致翻译中点丢失的唯一因素。 让我们说,你刚刚在美国摸了一口,在进入酒店后,你想吃一口。你不是在追求任何花哨的东西,所以跳进一家连锁餐厅的分店,就像必胜客。 现在,在英国,当你的饭菜结束,你已经解决了账单,你可能会留下一小笔钱给你的服务员,以表示你对良好服务的欣赏(如果它是好服务的话)。通常英国的用餐者会在账单上留下一小部分到10%的小费,但他们也可能会留下没有付任何费用。然而,这种行为在美国不太可能发展得很好,尤其是在纽约。 在曼哈顿,人们期望食客留下小费,这通常是在账单上规定的。有些餐馆甚至会为顾客提供指导,但一般规则是,你至少要给20%的小费,而更多的是要提供优质服务。如果你真的觉得服务员干得不好,那么即使这样,你也会留下10%的小费,并提出投诉。英国人在纽约的生活方式不太可能一帆风顺。 所以,你吃完了饭,然后在回到旅馆前付清账单。后来,你决定去城市的另一个地方喝一杯酒。在英国,你很可能会要求酒店接待员给你预订一辆出租车,这家酒店经常使用的公司。然而,如果你住在美国的城市,你可能会被引导到外面去悬挂出租车。别忘了,你的司机也会期待小费——通常是30%。 在你访问大苹果公司期间,你很少会担心尝试用一种你不会说的语言进行交流,但是还有其他的事情会让你觉得很麻烦。从上面的例子中可以看到,仅仅因为你说的是相同的语言并不意味着你和你所说的人在同一个页面上。 那么,您能不能进行本地化翻译?答案是你可以——但你可能不应该。 如果您一直负责协调不同国家/地区的焦点小组的市场调研项目,您将收到以您不理解的语言记录的结果。你可以通过机器翻译工具运行文件——毕竟,你会得到一个快速的结果,它是免费或低成本的。然而,翻译是否有意义是另一回事。当然,你得到的信息不太可能足够可靠,让你信任。 原因是它没有本地化。正如你把语言从一种变为另一种并不意味着你会明白答案一样,就像你可以和美国人说同样的语言一样,但仍然存在大量文化差异,可能会造成沟通上的差距。 为了确保您收集的访谈包含对您前进有价值的信息,您需要确保这些信息得到翻译和本地化。你的焦点小组成员可能会说出你不熟悉的品牌名称、俚语、习语或文化习俗。一个基本的机器翻译不会让事情变得更清楚,但雇用一个专业的人类翻译会。 翻译工作应始终由一位致力于母语的人来完成。例如,你想把一份法语文件翻译成英语,就会交给一位母语是英语、精通法语的专业翻译。因此,文本中提到的任何俚语或俗语或任何与英语读者不熟悉的习俗都将用提供最接近匹配或描述的英语术语解释。 作为一个在纽约的英国人,让谷歌翻译你的智能手机不会有助于解释小费制度。想象一下,有一个纽约人和你在一起,让你知道你需要支付多少小费,或者在你吃完饭后最好从哪里得到出租车,会有多大用处?他们提供了计算机程序无法做到的文化洞察力。 因为你不会冒着冒犯服务员的风险,也不会知道如何快速得到出租车,所以你会有一个比你没有装备这些信息更好的夜晚。同样,通过返回经过翻译和本地化的焦点小组访谈的成绩单,您将获得更可靠的信息来源,从而为您的业务发展战略奠定基础。 我们希望这让本地化问题变得更容易理解。下次您需要翻译时,请确定本地化是其核心。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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