Language localization is the translation and adaptation of a product to the characteristics of a particular country, region or population group. This can be software localization, website localization, translation and localization of marketing and advertising materials, technical manuals, and more.
The localization process boils down to translating and adapting software, computer games, or websites. Localization of the product can be carried out not only in countries and regions where the population speaks a foreign language, but also in cases where the language remains the same, for example, different dialects of Spanish in Spain and Latin America, in which idiomatic expressions differ. Likewise, the choice of idiomatic expressions can vary from country to country where the official language is English (USA, UK, or Philippines).
Localization is often viewed as “high-level translation”, but this does not reflect the importance and complexity of this process, or what it involves. In addition to translation (that is, grammar and spelling issues that vary by country and place where the same language is used), the localization process may include adapting the graphics component, currency symbols, date format, addresses and phone numbers. choice of colors for many other details.
When translating into another language, one must also consider which dialect is used. If you are translating into Spanish, it’s better to find out for whom it is intended: residents of Spain or Latin America? If the text will be read by all native Spanish speakers, then you should make sure that modern literary Spanish is used for translation, or translate the product into several dialects at once.
On the one hand, localization is a special case of translation and, in fact, is an integral part of any professionally executed translation. In this sense, localization can be defined as a better, deeper, more advanced and more professional translation as opposed to a superficial, literal, literal translation.
On the other hand, there are areas where the use of the term "localization" is justified. This is a translation of sites with a complex, branched structure, and finally, an audiovisual translation, which with good reason can be interpreted as the localization or cultural adaptation of film translation and related types of translation. In this sense, it is necessary to distinguish between technical localization, which presupposes the use of special techniques and methods, which, as a rule, are not required for ordinary translation, and cultural and linguistic adaptation of translations, which is not much different from stylistic editing by a native speaker.
