Dealing with a language barrier has never been more real than it is today. Digitization makes it possible to reach anyone and everyone, no matter what language they speak or the culture they come from. But the truth is only a little over 1 billion people speak English worldwide. And while that’s an impressively large number, the fact is that you’re missing out on at least 85% of the world by refusing to translate your content if you’re a business that plans to go global.

Thankfully, there has been an increase in translation software. We now have Google Translate and other translation and localization services that now allow us to communicate with others. In this post, we will focus on the definition of translation and localization service and four reasons that we should incorporate translation software into localization.

There are many ways that translation and localization services can be applied in your business. Some of those use cases include:

• Creating subtitles for films and videos;
• Blog posts and other written content;
• Books and educational materials;
• Contracts;
• Transcriptions of meetings;
• And so much more

But before we even talk about the best language translation software available, we need to know the difference between translation and localization. The goal is pretty much the same for both practices. You want to take a piece of content and make it understandable for someone. But the depth and methodology for both are very different.

What is Translation?

• Word-for-word translation — A translation service or software will translate your content word-for-word. While it’s easier for an automation or artificial intelligence tool to do that, it’s not always accurate context-wise. Say for instance you translate a statement like “that deal could break the bank” in a different language, the meaning might not be completely accurate.
• It doesn’t look at context or culture — Apart from language, there are many other things about a culture that could be different, such as the words we’re allowed to say or what is considered politically correct. With translation, you don’t have that filter readily available.
• Fast and efficient — Despite cultural limitations, translation tools are more efficient. Hence, you can translate more content at a faster rate. You also have the added advantage of being able to translate into more languages.

What is Localization?

• Meaning-for-meaning translation — Where translation might adapt the content in a word-for-word manner, localization takes the meaning of a piece of content and translates based on that. So when you translate “break the bank,” you won’t have dirty stares from bankers.
• Look at the context and culture — Localization takes into consideration cultural differences and contexts. However, having to do this for, let’s say, ten different languages would be more time and resource intensive.
• Time-consuming but careful — Where localization would take more time, it would be more careful about the sensitivities attached to a certain language.

So the golden question now is whether you should use a translation or localization service. Well, it really depends on the use case at the end of the day. As the old saying goes, there is a time and place for everything. So before deciding whether to translate or localize, look at some of these considerations.

• Cultural Sensitivity — If your documents or media are going to contain content that has a certain level of cultural sensitivity, then it might be a better idea to localize. But if the atmosphere and use case are more forgiving, then a translation service might be a better route.
• Number of Languages to Translate to — There are around 7,100 languages in the world. If you wanted to reach as many of those languages as you could, localizing could be a sizable investment. But if you were to reach only one or two languages, then you could probably justify the costing.
• Budget — The big clincher in almost any decision is whether you have the dollars to pay for a service. A company with more spending capacity could always go for a more contextualized service. But if you need that money for other services or priorities, then it might be better to try to save money on translation and go for a service that will provide a minimum viable output.
• Purpose — You’ll also need to consider to what end you’re translating a piece of content. If it were for an educational purpose, and it was to go on a learning platform like Absorb LMS or turned into a book, then localization could be a better route. But if you’re looking to simply introduce a product through a website or social media post, then translation could be a great route.

The answer is definitely YES. Although there are differences between localization and translation, it doesn’t mean that these two services can not support each other. Below is four reasons why should localization service should use translation software as a supporting tool to level up working efficiency.

Artificial intelligence-based

Looking at the common translation software examples you might hear of, there’s a big chance that most of them have switched to artificial intelligence to translate words and statements. A lot of man hours can go into manually translating each document that comes through a translation service.

So what some software has turned into is a program that would automatically translate something based on a given set of conditions and machine learning commands. A robot doesn’t cost as much to maintain compared to a workforce of translators, so localization services can charge less effort and even money to provide service.

Democratized service

The digital revolution has enabled democratization that we’ve never seen before in history. Technological advances have helped commoditize many services. There was once a time that you needed a whole set of encyclopedia volumes and a few hours to research a topic. But now, Google has made it easier and cheaper (practically costless) to perform that same research. Translation tools are the same way. They have democratized and commoditized translation services, making them more accessible and affordable.

Therefore if companies that apply translation software in localization will save much effort in proofreading and localizing the translated documents.

Cloud-based access

The boom of cloud-based technologies has also increased people's access to services. A cloud-based system is a program or software that people can access translation software. anytime and anywhere with nothing more than an internet connection.

One good example would be how Google Drive or Dropbox would fair with a hard drive. If you’re looking for the best backup software, you’ll most likely go for a storage solution that’s cloud-based. That’s because a backup software that’s cloud-based would be easier to access and more affordable in the long run. Storage or backup systems on the cloud also free up physical space because localization services won’t have to store physical drives or maintain staff to run the translation process. The working process will be completed on Cloud at a fast speed. The same principle applies to translation software Lokally.io.

Quantity over quality

We are now quickly realizing that better quality isn’t always better per se. Commoditizing something isn’t always a loss. If it were, then people wouldn’t have access to many of the services that technology has enabled, such as social media, email, search engines, and many more.

To describe more detail, with translation tools and extensions and document translation software that focus on quantity over quality, companies have access to cheaper and faster translation services while the general localization process applying machine translation will still be much more efficient.

When all is said and done, using translation software is a great way to reach a wider audience with lesser effort, while localization would provide depth. As the result, deciding to apply translation software to the working process will help localization companies generate both high quantity and quality results, which consequently increases work efficiency.