Globalization And Localization: Benefits And Challenges. Olga Melnikova, speech at Multidimensional Translation: From Science To Arts Conference, April 21, 2017. Riga, Latvia

1. GLOBALIZATION AND
LOCALIZATION: BENEFITS
AND CHALLENGES
Olga Melnikova
Multidimensional Translation: From Science to Arts
Riga, Latvia, April 21, 2017

2. Send Your
Questions to:
• Email: olgamelnikoff@gmail.com
• Website: olgamelnikoff.com

3. About the Speaker:
Olga Melnikova
• 2007-2014 – translator for Russian Translation
Company (Ru, En, Fr)
• 2010-2012 – court interpreter (Ru, Fr)
• 2010-now - futureactually.com - volunteer
Russian
Experience

4. About the Speaker:
Olga Melnikova
• May 2015 – MA in Translation and Localization Management,
Middlebury Institute (MIIS), Monterey, CA, US
• May 2015 – August 2016: Localization Project Management
Intern at Venga Global, Inc.
• August 2016 – now: Localization Project Manager at Moravia,
Inc.
US Experience

5. About the Speaker:
Olga Melnikova
• 2015, 2016 - winner of LocJAM, a non-profit worldwide game
localization contest (www.locjam.org).
• 2015 – now – performs with the O’NO band that plays songs
in 10 languages.
US Experience

6. AGENDA
•Globalization (G11n)
•Internationalization (I18n)
•Localization (L10n)

7. GOING GLOBAL
•High-tech companies: Silicon Valley, WA, NY
•Cloud-based services and other products
•A lot of clients and a lot of vendors

8. DEFINITIONS
• Globalization is developing, manufacturing and marketing an
application (software, web application, etc.) that is intended for
worldwide distribution. It means coming up with an idea that
needs to be shared with other cultures.
Source: Max Troyer, MIIS Professor

9. • Internationalization is implementation of software or
database changes required to support local formatting
conventions in a certain market. It includes support for
character sets (Unicode), dates, currency, sorting methods
and text direction.
Source: Max Troyer, MIIS Professor
DEFINITIONS

10. DEFINITIONS
• Localization involves taking a product and making it
linguistically and culturally appropriate to the target locale
(country / region and language) where it will be used and
sold. It can mean “translation”, but not always. Localization
is bigger than translation and it is related to technology.
Source: Max Troyer, MIIS Professor

11. L10N:
•Websites
•Software
•Desktop apps
•Mobile apps
•Videos (subtitling,
voice-over, dubbing)
•Computer games
•CAT tools
•Machine Translation
•Crowdsourcing
•DTP

12. HOW ARE THOSE 3 RELATED?
It is a point in
time when
you decide: I
need this in
more than 1
language. The
sooner this
idea arrives,
the better.
Even BEFORE you create
the product, you know it
will go global You decide to go
global AT THE TIME
of creating the
product
You decide to go
global AFTER you
already created the
product

13. HOW ARE THOSE 3 RELATED?
Huge Profit
Good profit
Average
profit
This is your
market share,
depending on
what strategy
you choose
(when you
decide to
start)
Small
profit

14. T9N EXAMPLE
Early Soviet
times – the
authors did
not write in a
“generic”
language
about a
“generic”
country
Граждане! Уважайте пружинный
матрац в голубых цветочках! Это —
семейный очаг, альфа и омега
меблировки, общее и целое
домашнего уюта, любовная база,
отец примуса! Как сладко спать под
демократический звон его пружин!
Какие сладкие сны видит человек,
засыпающий на его голубой дерюге!
Каким уважением пользуется каждый
матрацевладелец!

15. L10N EXAMPLE
When a product is
successful, the company
decides to localize it into
many languages. However,
since the original product
has already been created,
adapting it to other
countries might become
very expensive…

16. L10N EXAMPLE
DE is longer than EN so fields sometimes are too short
for a localized string => expensive code modification
needs to be done

17. I18N EXAMPLE
Modifications need
to be implemented
to the code at the
moment of the
original product
creation, not later
on.

18. I18N
Date, time,
currency,
temperature,
number format
is not “hard-
coded”, these
are variables
that may
change,
depending on
the settings.
• USD vs RU
• °C vs °F
• 1,000 vs 1000
• 06/28/2015 ->
28/06/2015
• 2 pm -> 14:00

19. G11N EXAMPLE
Frozen ranks as the highest-
grossing animated film of all
times.
Why?
• “Simpack”: simultaneous
release in many languages
• Original English text is
neutral and easy to adapt
to many markets (unlike
The Twelve Chairs)

20. HOW ARE THOSE 3 RELATED?
Huge Profit
Good profit
Average
profit
This is your
market share,
depending on
what strategy
you choose
(when you
decide to
start)
Small
profit

21. GILT (G11N, I18N, L10N, T9N)
GILT is the best model
for your content to go
global
GILT means moving
localization upstream
It helps to maximize
profit and minimize
downstream costs

22. Thank You!
• Email: olgamelnikoff@gmail.com
• Website: olgamelnikoff.com