Posts Tagged ‘multimedia’
Regional Formats
It may not matter that the language is correct if the product or literature is in the wrong format. The United States uses paper that is 8.5"x11", but many other countries use A4. International business cards are also different sizes. The U.S. DVD standard is NTSC, but other countries us PAL, just as video cassettes used to follow different [...]
Avoid Copying and Pasting
Limiting the number of human touch points in a project will limit the possibilities of introducing human error. One way to limit the number of human touch points is to avoid copying and pasting text whenever possible. Sometimes it can not be avoided. However, one important way to limit copying and pasting is to work with and extract [...]
Elections Won and Lost in Translation
Would you vote for the current dragonfly? That was the question posed to Spanish-speaking voters in Worcester, Massachusetts, according to Telegram.com. The ballot for the upcoming election omitted a single letter in a Spanish translation and consequently listed one candidate’s occupation as “current dragonfly” (“aguacil actual”) instead [...]
Avoid Hardcoded Image Text
Just as it is more expensive to recreate a file from a PDF than it is to localize the original editable files, it is also more expensive to recreate an image with text than it is to localize editable image text. For this reason, it is important to limit embedding or hardcoding of text in images. This is an important element of [...]
Nike Ad: I Don’t Want These, Give Me Big Shoes
Nike aired a commercial in 1989 that depicted Samburu tribesmen running through the bush in northern Kenya wearing Nike shoes. The commercial ended with one of the tribesmen speaking in the the Maa language, accompanied by a subtitle that flashed Nike's slogan, "Just Do It." However, anthropologist Dr. Lee Cronk of the University of Cincinnati [...]
Customer Complaints Lost in Translation
"Customer Complaints Lost in Translation" is an article by Globalization Group vice president Adam Wooten, published in the July 12-18, 2010 issue of The Enterprise, "the premier business paper in the Utah region." Read a PDF copy of the complete article here, or subscribe to The Enterprise here.
Video Localization Costs
There are many ways to localize a video for e-learning, marketing, entertainment, or other purposes. Localization can include graphic text localization, subtitle translation, multilingual voice-over, localized dubbing, or even video localization that includes re-shooting the video with localized actors and localized scripts. When considering [...]
Image Localization
Sometimes localization of text is not enough. We've already pointed out that colors, gestures, symbols, and icons often need localization. The same is often true for other graphic, photographic, and video imagery. It's simply a matter of providing imagery that reflects what exists in a country's context. Regarding the models used in images, [...]
Bad Photoshop Is Not a Substitute for Localization
Sometimes images need to be localized to reflect the ethnic diversity of a target market, otherwise marketing materials may look too foreign without using Asian models in Asia, Middle eastern models in the Middle East, etc. Unfortunately, Microsoft got a lot of flack for amateurish use of Photoshop in an attempt to localize one image for [...]
Customer Silence Can Be More Dangerous than Complaints
If a translation receives a lot of negative feedback, the company that published it may wish for silence. However, sometimes a reaction of silence can mislead a company into complacency and a false sense of security. A real-life exchange that illustrates the danger of silence recently happened between a website marketing manager and one of his [...]
