Lip africa summit challenges in emerging marget localisation

LLP Africa Summit 2009


Microsoft LLP 3.0:Challenges in Emerging Market Localisation

November 16, 2009

Manuela Noske

Program Manager

Microsoft Corporation


Challenges in Emerging Market Localisation

There are 3 main challenges in localizing Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for emerging markets

• Uptake of LIPs by local language speakers

• Linguistic quality of the localized interface

• Lack of feedback on quality and usability of LIPs



Factors influencing the uptake of LIPs

Status of language in society

Level of education of speakers

Literacy in the language



Who is the target user group of a LIP?

Any and all speakers of the language:

• Mono- and multilingual speakers of local languages (greatest need)

• Multilingual speakers of local and dominant business language


Uptake of LIPs

Status of the language in society

• The higher the socio-linguistic status of the language, the more likely that speakers will download and use the LIPs

• Identification with the language and its culture drives language use and acceptance of tools that promote and foster language use

• Availability of LIPs has a positive impact on the status of a language, as they validate the language and speaker community


Uptake of LIPs


• High level of education can have a positive or negative impact on willingness to use a LIP

• In positive cases education leads to awareness of the availability of LIPs

socio-economic means to own computers

a sense of pride in the local language and culture

speakers valuing and promoting their heritage through language

speakers using their language in all domains and contexts

• In negative cases education leads to a sense of shame in the local language and culture

a devaluing of the heritage language

speakers relegating the language to specific domains contexts, like family and worship, or

the local village but not the city


Uptake of LIPs


• Literacy rates differ from language to language • Many LIP languages have a long history of writing• Higher education is often not available/delivered in

local languages• There is a scarcity of reading materials in local

languages, both printed but also web content• Speakers are not necessarily fully competent readers

of their languages, or• Speakers are competent, but lack the opportunity to

practice reading their languages


Uptake of LIPs


• Reading and understanding the language of the User Interface requires a particular skill

• The UI contains technical concepts that the average user is not necessarily familiar with (Sleep? Hibernate?)

• Even a skilled reader needs repeated exposure to the UI before they are comfortable with the language in the UI

• The less skilled a reader, the more difficult it is for a user to understand and successfully use a computer



Factors influencing the uptake of LIPs

Status of language in society





There are 3 main challenges in LIP localisation:






Factors influencing the linguistic quality of the user interface:

Target audience of LIPs

Standardization of language

Consistency of translations

Accuracy of translations

Experience in localization


Quality of the localized interface


• Target audience is the average home or office user• Tone and choice of words need to be geared towards

that target user audience• The language that is used in interface cannot be

“academic”, “overly formal”, “archaic”, “poetic”, “casual” or “hip”

• The language needs to be formal, polite, neutral and bias-free

• The tone needs to be helpful, but not condescending



Standardization of the language

Two scenarios:• No clear standards are defined for a language• Standards are defined, but

there is little awareness of them,

they are not documented,

they are not widely accepted

• If standards are absent or ignored, translators create their own solutions, often on an individual speaker basis.

Non-adherence to standards leads to an unusable UI




• Only use the form or dialect on which the standard is based

• Only use standard characters

terminology

spelling

grammar

• If there is uncertainty about standards, the project moderators should be consulted

• If the issue is genuinely open and undefined, actively work with the language authority/body to advance the issue and find resolution




There can be inconsistencies with regard to• Term choice• Spelling of lexemes/words/stems• Spelling of grammatical elements• Grammar• Loanword integration• Treatment of specific localisation issues

Inconsistent translations lead to an unusable UI



Accuracy of translations: Out of context translations

• A source string can have several legitimate translations • Correct translation can only be determined by

• surrounding strings

• a screenshot of string in context

• the instructions that come with the string

Examples: • “About %s”• “Allow the player to receive multicast streams”



Accuracy of translations: Wrong translations

Sometimes a distinction in the source is not made in the target

To close these programs and log off your computer, click Log off now.

Ukuvala lezizinhlelo nokuvala ikhompuyutha yakho, chofoza Phuma manje.

To close these programs and turn off your computer, click Shut down now.

Ukuvala lezizinhlelo nokuvala ikhompuyutha yakho, chofoza Cisha manje.

Inaccurate translations lead to an unusable UI


Quality of the localised interface

Experience in localisation

• Localisation requires technical competence

an understanding of how a computer works and how elements in the

UI and UA relate to each other

a basic understanding of common features of source strings (like

placeholders, partial strings, partially locked strings)

knowledge of a localisation editor to do the work right

• Localisation requires linguistic competence

the ability to understand the meaning of the source string

an understanding of how a source string can be translated to render

meaning accurately and in agreement with the grammatical

requirements of the language (often under severe restrictions of the

length of a string)



Factors influencing the quality of the user interface:




Accuracy of translations

Experience in localization



There are 3 main challenges in LIP localisation:





Lack of feedback on quality and usability of LIPs

• In the absence of feedback about the linguistic quality of the UI, it is impossible to improve it

• Need to create feedback loops that gather information and channel back to production teams and ultimately in-country partners

• Please provide feedback!


© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market

conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.


Linguistic quality issues in LIP localisation

Use of punctuation marks

Unless language-specific rules allow otherwise, there ought to be a space after a punctuation mark

Example: nso-za



Capitalization

Unless language-specific rules allow otherwise, if the source sentence begins with a capital letter, the target sentence ought to start with a capital letter

Example: nso-za



Capitalization

Unless language-specific rules allow otherwise, if the source term begins with a capital letter, the target term ought to start with a capital letter

Example: nso-za



Localisation of “Microsoft” and “Windows”

• The terms “Microsoft” and “Windows” are never localised:

Microsoft ≠ Maikrosoft and Windows ≠ Windos

• No grammatical elements or words may attach to these terms.

All prefixes and suffixes must attach via a hyphen:



Capitalization of proper nouns or reference terms

• Source strings follow rules of English syntax and spelling• Proper nouns in English are capitalized. Follow language-specific rules

of target language in dealing with proper nouns.• If a proper noun is preceded by a prefix, is the prefix capitalized and the

stem is not, or is the stem capitalized and the prefix is not, or are both capitalized?

Example (xh-za)

1. Empty 'Deleted Items' Folder

Yenza ingabinanto iFolda 'Yezinto Ezicinyiweyo'

2. Sent Items path:

Ithumele indlela yeZinto:



Integration of loanwords

• Loanwords should either be uniformly integrated (adapted to follow the spelling rules of the language) or be left unintegrated and follow the spelling of the source language.

1. Hertz = Hatzi or Hertz

2. Desktop = desktop or ideskiithophu or ideskhithophu or ideskitophu or or ideskithophu

3. Internet = internet or intanethi or inthanethi or enthanethi or entanethi



English in target language

Examples (xh-za)

1. Decrypt the selected items

Dikhriptha izinto ezikhethiweyo Decrypt the selected items

2. No items match your search in Classic View

Akukho zinto zihambelana nokukhangela kwakho kwi-Classic View



When nouns are not defined for number

In some source strings, noun subjects and objects are undefined for

number. How do you translate these constructions?

1. Copy the selected item(s) to the folder

Nakili vipengele vilivyoteuliwa kwenye folda

2. Move the item(s) to the selected folder

Sogeza kipengele (vipengele) kwenye folda iliyoteuliwa

3. No item(s) selected for performing this action

Hakuna ki(vi)pengele kilichoteuliwa kufanya kitendo hiki

4. Are you sure you want to disconnect the selected user(s)?

Je, una uhakika unataka kukatisha (m)watumiaji walioteuliwa?



Syntactic agreement when noun subject is unknown

1. Downloading list of folders: %d received...

Upakuaji orodha ya folda: %d pokelewa...

2. Downloading newsgroup descriptions: %d received...

Inapakua maelezo ya kundi habari: %d imepokelewa...



Translating when there is a place holder

1. The file %1 does not contain sound or music acceptable to AutoMovie.

Ifayela %1 aliqukethe umsindo noma umculo owamukelekile kwi

AutoMovie.

Ifayela i- %1 aliqukethe umsindo noma umculo owamukelekile kwi-

AutoMovie.

2. %s bytes free space

Ama %s byte esikhala esikhululekile



When it’s best not to localize



Inconsistency in localising product names



Consistency in translation

• A given source term with a particular meaning should only have one translation in the target language.

• Two different source terms with different meanings cannot have a single translation in the target language.



Source: is

Target: i-/yi-/ngu- [this preposition "is" can't be used on its own in Xhosa, must be quantified]

Lip africa summit challenges in emerging marget localisation

Education

Transcript of Lip africa summit challenges in emerging marget localisation