Perspectives on Localization (American Translators Association Scholarly Monograph)

Over the past two decades, international trade agreements such as GATT and NAFTA have lowered international trade barriers. At the same time, the information revolution has fueled profound shifts in the ways companies conduct business and communicate with their customers, and worldwide acceptance of the ISO 9000 standard has established the notion that quality must be defined in terms of customer satisfaction. Falling trade barriers and rising quality standards have made linguistic and cultural issues increasingly important. To successfully compete in today’s global on-demand economy, companies must localize their products and services to fit the needs of the local market in terms of language, culture, functionality, work practices, as well as legal and regulatory requirements. In recognition of the growing importance of localization, this volume explores a certain number of key issues, including:

• Return on investment and the localization business case
• Localization cost drivers and cost-containment strategies
• Localization quality and customer-focused quality management
• Challenges posed by localization of games, including Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs)
• Using a meta-language to facilitate accurate translation of disembodied content
• The case for managing source-language terminology
• Terminology management in the localization process
• Reconciling industry needs and academic objectives in localization education
• Localization standards and the commoditization of linguistic information
• The creation and application of language industry standards
• Rethinking customer-focused localization through user-centered design
• Moving from translation reuse to language reuse

Table of contents

 

Introduction: A Copernican revolution Keiran J. Dunne	1–11
1. The localization business case
Quantifying the return on localization investment Donald A. DePalma	15–36
GMS technology making the localization business case Clove Lynch	37–46
Localization Cost Carla DiFranco	47–66
2. Localization quality
Quality in the real world Scott Bass	69–94
Putting the cart behind the horse: Rethinking localization quality management Keiran J. Dunne	95–117
3. Game localization
Issues in localizing computer games Frank Dietz	121–134
Localizing MMORPGs Eric Heimburg	135–151
4. Terminology management
A practical case for managing source-language terminology Robin Lombard	155–171
Terminology workflow in the localization process Barbara Inge Karsch	173–191
5. Localization education
A discipline coming of age in the digital age Debbie Folaron	195–219
6. Localization standards
Localization standards, knowledge- and information-centric business models, and the commoditization of linguistic information Arle Lommel	223–239
The creation and application of language industry standards Sue Ellen Wright	241–278
7. Rethinking the paradigm
Melding paradigms: Meeting the needs of international customers through localization and user-centered design Susan M. Dray and David A. Siegel	281–307
Corpus enhancement and computer-assisted localization and translation Gregory M. Shreve	309–331
Appendix: Localization-related standards and standards bodies	333–342
Suggestions for further reading	343–345
Contributors	347–350
Index	351–356