Publishing in Multiple Languages
From a business perspective we probably can’t look too far out into the external environment without confronting the need for internationalisation and localisation of our web content. The old expectation of an Anglo-centric audience (or customer base) has faded into a multicultural audience even in our local marketplace.
Add to that the complexity of various flavours of english which might interpret idioms and so forth to entirely different meanings. Mix that along with globalisation and a shake of multiculturalism. Who exactly lives in Sydney? A summary of the 2001 Census Diversity [PDF 19KB] in Australia identified Chinese as our second most commonly spoken language after English, 66% of people in Sydney speak only English at home, and one in twenty Sydney families speaks Chinese at home. One would expect the language we speak at home to be our natural language. And this is our local market not an overseas one. How can we ignore that? More importantly how can we market ourselves and our clients TO that segment effectively? Definately not by demanding Anglo-European ideals and language structure.
So the global environment has become representative of the local environment for business. Whether we want to call that one as too hard to deal with or not its something that’s out there - the elephant in the room of web development. I should note this is particularly so with government but in all honesty its hard to even get a web developer or business out there to acknowledge the issue.
Dave Shea posted an interesting article today along these lines. As he publishes his content in multiple languages this also means he has to deal with emails in multiple languages as well. Something I really hadn’t considered until now. Babel Fish is well known to be a hazy shadey way to translate, and I haven’t tried Google Language Tools, but ultimately the expectation that cheap machine translation might be available is somewhat over-shooting current capabilities.
Richard Ishida’s @media 2007 presentation Designing for International Users: Practical Tips (available for download as audio and with accompanying slides) presses a few of the complexities that translation involves. Its not a simple case of transposing one to the other at all.
Another option in business critical situations, if you have the budget and the business need, is to employ a reputable translator. Martin Rydningen who translates between Norwegian and English is a good example of such a service. It’s not as expensive as it sounds if you’re restricting the work to only include your business email translation rather than your entire dynamic content.
I’d be particularly cautious about putting my business success into the hands of a programmed buffoon like Babel Fish. For serious translation you really need a human with skill and experience.
November 19th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
>>”For serious translation you really need a human with skill and experience.”
Yep, this is really the bottom-line here: it’s still needs a real, human translator to do the work.
I’ve already read some of Ishida’s points elsewhere on the Web, and I’ve even tried-out the Google Language Tools translator (to see if it was any good)…but it all points back to the same thing.
So, why isn’t there more adoption of internationalism?
Is is just too much effort for some companies?
Is it something that Web Designers aren’t willing to embrace, and provide, if they think their clients will get cold-feet about spending more cash on it?
Very early on in the project planning for some web sites, especially for larger organisations, I think there’s a need to assess if internationalism is a requirement…(will it hurt Sales Figures if it is not considered?!)
I really don’t have any proof of how much of this happening, but you can consider how many English-speaking (as first language) web sites don’t offer an alternative translation - and it’s certainly a large number of sites!
By contrast though, many web sites throughout Asia offer an ‘English-Speaking’ version of their sites’ content for visitors - even though it’s not their first language!
November 19th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
True, but everything about professional web development falls under the same budget vs time vs target market constraints. My concern is that many people just see ‘language’ as internationalisation and therefore box it as too hard before the conversation begins.
You’re exactly right when you identify that its an expensive task to consider human translation, too. In the case of dynamic content you’d have to do it programatically somehow like Richard was alluding too. Big budget stuff. It would be nice to see something come out in the next couple of years that stuck to single language conversion and got it right - English to Japanese for example. That would be very useful. Maybe mobiles will be better at incorporating context awareness into that mix.
Thanks for commenting Matt and sorry if I’ve babbled on… I’m in programming avoidance this afternoon for some reason. Blogging seems much more entertaining… BTW what are the stats for ethnic origin in London? [my comment was cut down to keep it on topic - oops!]
November 20th, 2007 at 7:06 am
>>”BTW what are the stats for ethnic origin in London?”
The last Census wasn’t all that long ago, but it’s not even needed - one simple glance at London shows instantly that it’s one of the most culturally diverse cities you’re ever likely to encounter in the World (far more than Sydney in Oz for example, and even more than most of the largest U.S. cities too). That isn’t really answering your question in regards to ethnic origin though…but more the ethnic background of the locals. All of the ethnicities are well-represented - it’s truly a multi-cultural place.
November 20th, 2007 at 7:59 am
That’s exactly what I expected and I picked London due to its historical significance as a crossroads for cultures… but it quickly brings the point about local audiences now being more international than ever.
Its a difficult one for sure. On some projects it might actually work better to incorporate something that makes people more comfortable - personalisation? That could include language but might just allow images to be turned off… I read somewhere recently about a Muslim ethnic group who find all images offensive, for example. Of course then they’re not going to be out buying my expensive sports equipment lol…
Or they might be served more sensitive content entirely somehow via server side scripting.
Anyway that’s the circle my head’s stuck in at the moment as I ponder the complexities.
What I particularly found interesting about Dave’s experience was that I knew some were blogging their content in several languages but didn’t think for a minute about the consequences. Like having to then correspond with a foreign language at the other end. Must be very difficult to maintain. And chew time! I’m not sure I’d be that patient for my blogging (or determined).