If you’re expanding your business, you need to identify the best approach to speak your target audience’s language. That means you need to identify whether you want to use translation vs localization services.
If you’re not familiar with the difference, this post will cover everything you need to know to help you make the right decision.
What is Translation?
At first glance, translation seems to merely involve transferring individual sentences from one language to another. In reality, though, translators focus on transferring the inherent meaning of a text from one culture to another.
A proper translation captures the sense, intent, and tone of the original text of the source text, keeping the grammar rules, idioms, and cultural references of both languages in mind.
Ultimately, a professional translation should read as if it were written in the target language in the first place.
When is Translation Important?
Translation services become crucial whenever you need to convey a certain meaning in different languages. And there are various situations where you’ll have to do that.
Business Expansion
If you’re expanding your business to a global audience, you’ll have to finish a lot of paperwork and find suitable partners, suppliers, and distributors. You can’t expect to do all these tasks in your native language. It’ll only cause a lot of miscommunication.
You need to finish all the legal and technical procedures in the target audience’s language to ensure the processes flow as seamlessly as possible. That’s where translation services come in.
Besides the legal and technical aspects, translation services can help your business’s marketing efforts. Translating your marketing brochures, website content, and product descriptions will help your target audience connect with your brand.
In other words, translation services will help your audience trust your business, increasing its image on the market.
Academic Research and Publishing
With researchers conducting studies all over the world and in different languages, translation services can help facilitate access to any study conducted in foreign languages.
Whether it’s studies, journal articles, or textbooks, translation services help enrich the academic world, facilitating access to different types of knowledge around the world.
Conferences and International Events
Presentations, handouts, and live‑translation services at seminars allow attendees to be fully engaged. Translating speeches and materials in advance guarantees that complex ideas are received accurately, prompting productive discussions and partnerships.
What is the Translation Process?
The translation process differs from one translator/agency to another. We’ll cover our own translation process to show you how we guarantee quality at the most optimal rate.
Heavy Research
Heavy research is the essence of any proper translation. Our translators spend the necessary time to research the subject matter, the target audience, and the technical terminology and concepts to ensure a clear, accurate translation.
Translating the Inherent Meaning
Once our translators have a proper understanding of the targeted industry, they start translating your project, maintaining the tone, style, and intent. And making sure their word choice appeals to the targeted audience.
Editing & Proofreading
After the translation phase is over, we send the translated files to our editors and proofreaders to eliminate any language mistakes that might have occurred and ensure our work meets the highest linguistic standards on the market.
What is Localization?
Similar to translation, localization involves transferring meaning from one language to another. However, localization caters to a particular local audience.
In other words, localization goes a step beyond translation, adjusting idioms and tone, and even product names to suit local preferences and conventions.
When is Localization Important?
Here are a few cases where you’d need to appeal to a specific local audience using localization services.
Marketing and Advertising Campaigns
When brands launch promotional activities in new, local territories, a simple translation often falls short of delivering the intended meaning. Localization would ensure that slogans, taglines, and marketing content reflect local humor, values, and cultural conventions.
Software and Application Deployment
Releasing software tools to international users requires more than translating menus and help text. Localization addresses functional aspects such as date/number formats, keyboard layouts, text expansion/contraction, and right‑to‑left interface support.
Tailoring both language and technical behavior to each local audience, developers prevent usability issues and deliver a seamless user experience.
Translation is Just One Aspect of Localization
Translation involves transferring a message from one language to another, but localization combines translated messages with cultural adaptations, such as adjusting imagery, idioms, number/date formats, and legal phrasing.
Eventually, that helps create an experience that feels native to the target audience. Although translation and localization are two different processes, transferring the message is usually a part of creating a native experience. In other words, translation is one aspect of localization.
Benefits of Language Localization
When your marketing content is customized to your audience’s cultural background and local slang, they’ll be more likely to invest time in reading and responding to it.
As a result, your brand’s image will improve and your audience will grow to trust it. Ultimately, delivering language localization that speaks to your global audience helps you foster stronger connections.
The Localization Process?
Now that you understand the benefits of localization services, it’s time to learn what the localization process is like.
Researching the Target Audience
Research is the essence of any localization project, as it allows our localizers to understand their target audience and their cultural, social, and linguistic preferences, allowing them to choose the words that speak to them.
Building a Style Guide
Based on that initial research, we build a detailed style guide that includes the voice, tone, and region-specific idioms. This will provide localizers and editors with a shared framework, promoting consistency throughout the project.
Adapting Content
After building a comprehensive style guide, localizers start transferring sentences from one language to another, adapting idioms, tone, and phrasing so that content reads smoothly in the target language audience’s culture.
Editing and Proofreading
Once the localization is complete, we send it to our editors and proofreaders to eliminate linguistic mistakes and guarantee that every word speaks to the audience’s culture.
The Most Popular Languages for Localization
Various languages could use localization services. Here are some of the most popular ones:
And more!
The Difference Between Translation and Localization
|
Aspect |
Translation | Localization |
| Goal | Transferring text from one language to another, maintaining meaning and tone. |
Adapt text to a local region’s language, incorporating local idioms, style, and conventions. |
|
Focus |
Focuses on linguistic accuracy while keeping the original text’s intent and content. | Includes translation, along with cultural adaptation |
| Style & Tone Adjustment | Preserves the source style and tone as closely as possible |
Customizes the style and voice to meet the target culture’s expectations |
|
Ideal Use Cases |
Best for technical, legal or content where accuracy is crucial |
Best for marketing, UI/UX content, and consumer-facing materials where cultural connection is a priority |
Translation vs localization: Which Should I Choose?
There isn’t a definitive answer to that question, as it depends on your goals and priorities. While both services are connected, the difference between translation and localization is stark.
If you’re looking to transfer meaning from one culture to another while remaining accurate and faithful to the source text, you need a professional translation service.
However, if you’re looking to speak a particular audience’s language, whether it’s through marketing copy or brand storytelling, a localization service is the best choice.
Conclusion
When it comes to translation vs localization, no service is superior to the other. Each has its own goal, process, and results. So, before you decide on which one your business needs, you need to decide the direction you want to go.
Whether it’s translation or localization, Alsun Translation Services can help fulfill all your linguistic needs. So, give us a call, and wait to receive the most high-quality work on the market.
FAQs
What happens if I prioritize translation over localization?
If you’re speaking to a local audience without properly localized content, you might face misunderstandings and reduced engagement due to your audience not being able to connect with your content.
How long does localizing a project take?
The deadline depends on the word count, complexity of the project, language pair, and any special requirements you might have.
What qualifications should I look for in translators and localizers?
For translation services, search for translators with experience in both source and target languages and the industry you operate in. For localization, look for evidence of cultural understanding, such as being a native speaker of the target language.
