Lip africa summit challenges in emerging marget localisation

LLP Africa Summit 2009
Microsoft LLP 3.0:
Challenges in Emerging
Market Localisation
November 16, 2009
Manuela Noske
Program Manager
Microsoft Corporation

Challenges in Emerging Market Localisation
There are 3 main challenges in localizing Language Interface
Packs (LIPs) for emerging markets
• Uptake of LIPs by local language speakers
• Linguistic quality of the localized interface
• Lack of feedback on quality and usability of
LIPs

Factors influencing the uptake of LIPs
Status of language in society
Level of education of speakers
Literacy in the language

Who is the target user group of a LIP?
Any and all speakers of the language:
• Mono- and multilingual speakers of local languages
(greatest need)
• Multilingual speakers of local and dominant business
language

Uptake of LIPs
Status of the language in society
• The higher the socio-linguistic status of the language,
the more likely that speakers will download and use
the LIPs
• Identification with the language and its culture drives
language use and acceptance of tools that promote
and foster language use
• Availability of LIPs has a positive impact on the status
of a language, as they validate the language and
speaker community

Uptake of LIPs
Level of education of speakers
• High level of education can have a positive or negative impact on
willingness to use a LIP
• In positive cases education leads to
 awareness of the availability of LIPs
 socio-economic means to own computers
 a sense of pride in the local language and culture
 speakers valuing and promoting their heritage through language
 speakers using their language in all domains and contexts
• In negative cases education leads to
 a sense of shame in the local language and culture
 a devaluing of the heritage language
 speakers relegating the language to specific domains contexts, like family and
worship, or the local village but not the city

Uptake of LIPs
• Literacy rates differ from language to language
• Many LIP languages have a long history of writing
• Higher education is often not available/delivered in
local languages
• There is a scarcity of reading materials in local
languages, both printed but also web content
• Speakers are not necessarily fully competent readers
of their languages, or
• Speakers are competent, but lack the opportunity to
practice reading their languages

Uptake of LIPs
• Reading and understanding the language of the User
Interface requires a particular skill
• The UI contains technical concepts that the average
user is not necessarily familiar with (Sleep?
Hibernate?)
• Even a skilled reader needs repeated exposure to the
UI before they are comfortable with the language in
the UI
• The less skilled a reader, the more difficult it is for a
user to understand and successfully use a computer

Factors influencing the uptake of LIPs
Status of language in society
Level of education of
speakers

There are 3 main challenges in LIP localisation:
• Linguistic quality of the localized
interface
• Lack of feedback on quality and usability of
LIPs

Factors influencing the linguistic quality of the user interface:
Target audience of LIPs
Standardization of language
Consistency of translations
Accuracy of translations
Experience in localization

Quality of the localized interface
• Target audience is the average home or office user
• Tone and choice of words need to be geared towards
that target user audience
• The language that is used in interface cannot be
“academic”, “overly formal”, “archaic”, “poetic”,
“casual” or “hip”
• The language needs to be formal, polite, neutral and
bias-free
• The tone needs to be helpful, but not condescending

Standardization of the language
Two scenarios:
• No clear standards are defined for a language
• Standards are defined, but
 there is little awareness of them,
 they are not documented,
 they are not widely accepted
• If standards are absent or ignored, translators create their
own solutions, often on an individual speaker basis.
Non-adherence to standards leads to an unusable UI

• Only use the form or dialect on which the standard is based
• Only use standard
 characters
 terminology
 spelling
 grammar
• If there is uncertainty about standards, the project moderators
should be consulted
• If the issue is genuinely open and undefined, actively work with
the language authority/body to advance the issue and find
resolution

There can be inconsistencies with regard to
• Term choice
• Spelling of lexemes/words/stems
• Spelling of grammatical elements
• Grammar
• Loanword integration
• Treatment of specific localisation issues
Inconsistent translations lead to an unusable UI

Accuracy of translations: Out of context translations
• A source string can have several legitimate translations
• Correct translation can only be determined by
• surrounding strings
• a screenshot of string in context
• the instructions that come with the string
Examples:
• “About %s”
• “Allow the player to receive multicast streams”

Accuracy of translations: Wrong translations
Sometimes a distinction in the source is not made in the target
To close these programs and log off your computer, click Log off now.
Ukuvala lezizinhlelo nokuvala ikhompuyutha yakho, chofoza Phuma manje.
To close these programs and turn off your computer, click Shut down now.
Ukuvala lezizinhlelo nokuvala ikhompuyutha yakho, chofoza Cisha manje.
Inaccurate translations lead to an unusable UI

Quality of the localised interface
Experience in localisation
• Localisation requires technical competence
 an understanding of how a computer works and how elements in the
UI and UA relate to each other
 a basic understanding of common features of source strings (like
placeholders, partial strings, partially locked strings)
 knowledge of a localisation editor to do the work right
• Localisation requires linguistic competence
 the ability to understand the meaning of the source string
 an understanding of how a source string can be translated to render
meaning accurately and in agreement with the grammatical
requirements of the language (often under severe restrictions of the
length of a string)

Factors influencing the quality of the user interface:
Accuracy of translations
Experience in localization

There are 3 main challenges in LIP localisation:
• Linguistic quality of the localized interface
• Lack of feedback on quality and usability
of LIPs

Lack of feedback on quality and
usability of LIPs
• In the absence of feedback about the linguistic quality
of the UI, it is impossible to improve it
• Need to create feedback loops that gather information
and channel back to production teams and ultimately
in-country partners
• Please provide feedback!

© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market
conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation.
MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

Linguistic quality issues in LIP localisation
Use of punctuation marks
Unless language-specific rules allow otherwise, there ought to be a space
after a punctuation mark
Example: nso-za

Capitalization
Unless language-specific rules allow otherwise, if the source sentence
begins with a capital letter, the target sentence ought to start with a
capital letter
Example: nso-za

Capitalization
Unless language-specific rules allow otherwise, if the source term begins
with a capital letter, the target term ought to start with a capital letter
Example: nso-za

Localisation of “Microsoft” and “Windows”
• The terms “Microsoft” and “Windows” are never localised:
Microsoft ≠ Maikrosoft and Windows ≠ Windos
• No grammatical elements or words may attach to these terms.
All prefixes and suffixes must attach via a hyphen:

Capitalization of proper nouns or reference terms
• Source strings follow rules of English syntax and spelling
• Proper nouns in English are capitalized. Follow language-specific rules
of target language in dealing with proper nouns.
• If a proper noun is preceded by a prefix, is the prefix capitalized and the
stem is not, or is the stem capitalized and the prefix is not, or are both
capitalized?
Example (xh-za)
1. Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder
Yenza ingabinanto iFolda 'Yezinto Ezicinyiweyo'
2. Sent Items path:
Ithumele indlela yeZinto:

Integration of loanwords
• Loanwords should either be uniformly integrated (adapted to follow the
spelling rules of the language) or be left unintegrated and follow the
spelling of the source language.
1. Hertz = Hatzi or Hertz
2. Desktop = desktop or ideskiithophu or ideskhithophu or ideskitophu or
or ideskithophu
3. Internet = internet or intanethi or inthanethi or enthanethi or entanethi

English in target language
Examples (xh-za)
1. Decrypt the selected items
Dikhriptha izinto ezikhethiweyo Decrypt the selected items
2. No items match your search in Classic View
Akukho zinto zihambelana nokukhangela kwakho kwi-Classic View

When nouns are not defined for number
In some source strings, noun subjects and objects are undefined for
number. How do you translate these constructions?
1. Copy the selected item(s) to the folder
Nakili vipengele vilivyoteuliwa kwenye folda
2. Move the item(s) to the selected folder
Sogeza kipengele (vipengele) kwenye folda iliyoteuliwa
3. No item(s) selected for performing this action
Hakuna ki(vi)pengele kilichoteuliwa kufanya kitendo hiki
4. Are you sure you want to disconnect the selected user(s)?
Je, una uhakika unataka kukatisha (m)watumiaji walioteuliwa?

Syntactic agreement when noun subject is unknown
1. Downloading list of folders: %d received...
Upakuaji orodha ya folda: %d pokelewa...
2. Downloading newsgroup descriptions: %d received...
Inapakua maelezo ya kundi habari: %d imepokelewa...

Translating when there is a place holder
1. The file %1 does not contain sound or music acceptable to AutoMovie.
Ifayela %1 aliqukethe umsindo noma umculo owamukelekile kwi
AutoMovie.
Ifayela i- %1 aliqukethe umsindo noma umculo owamukelekile kwi-
AutoMovie.
2. %s bytes free space
Ama %s byte esikhala esikhululekile

When it’s best not to localize

Inconsistency in localising product names

Consistency in translation
• A given source term with a particular meaning should only have one
translation in the target language.
• Two different source terms with different meanings cannot have a single
translation in the target language.

Source: is
Target: i-/yi-/ngu- [this preposition "is" can't be used on its own in Xhosa,
must be quantified]

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