I have been engaging in software localization since 2003. Software localization, simply put, is to convert the software interface from one language to another, but in fact there are lot more to do.
This work is not a pure translation, and in fact, translation accounts for only a smaller work load (possibly less than 1/4 of the total).
The majority of work is focused on the analysis of the software, the editing of various resources, incl. images,audio, video and other media. One has to understand many IT technologies outside the language skills, incl. file analysis, hex code editing, tansformation, font change, image and media treatment, testing, patching, encrypting.decrypting, compression/decompression (packing/unpacking), disassemblying (cracking) etc.
In addition, one has to respect the application environment of the client culture, apart from the language itself.
Therefore it is a fairly challenging work. Language translation, as one insider puts it, is one of the most sophisticated activities of humans. |
