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Outgoing Board member, Christiane Bernier (L), receives a gift from GALA's Association Development Manager, Laura Brandon. Board member Arancha Caballero looks on.

2007 Localization World Seattle: Outgoing Board member, Christiane Bernier (L), receives a gift from GALA's Association Development Manager, Laura Brandon. Board member Arancha Caballero looks on.

 

There are 206 million native speakers of Arabic, making it the 5th most widely spoken language in the world

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Internationalization Overview

Internationalization, or I18N, evolved out of translation and localization. The goal is for original content to be international ready. Deployment of I18N is considered strategically at the beginning of content development, not after original content is already developed. While it has primarily been used in the writing of software code to ensure that versions beyond the original language version can be created with greater ease, it should be considered by all developers of global content.
 
There are many benefits to I18N, including:
  • Quick use of software application (or other content) in multiple locales
  • Reduced time and cost for localization because content is already ready to be localized
  • Higher revenues and profits from other markets
  • Single source code for all applications
  • Simpler maintenance
  • Improved quality and code architecture
  • Reduced cost
  • Adherence to important standards
I18N can be deployed at different degrees depending on the goals for international distribution:
 
Level 1:  Minimum level
  • Application independent from any language/character set encoding
  • Application independent from any cultural conventions
Level 2:  User-visible text strings
  • Hard-coded text
  • Concatenations/Variables
  • Use of Tools
Level 3:  Support for non-western languages
  • Unicode
  • Essential to penetrate Asian market
Level 4:  Highest level
  • Multi-national products
  • Support for processing and storing data originating from different locales


Localization Blunder
The Dairy Association’s huge success with the campaign “Got Milk?” prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation read “Are you lactating?”