Anna, I run a translation/localization company and worked with software publishers to help them localize their software over 16 years.
Software localization is not just translating the text. There is a lot involved in making sure that your end users get a working product in their native language. What you should ask is not if you want to use this person’s assistance, but if localizing in this language is useful to your company.
Translation costs, although not inexpensive, are usually not the primary factor in deciding to go forward or not. If you do decide to do it, please make sure that you have the correct process in place and that you are using the right people and technology, not necessarily the free people. Sometimes saving a few dollars ends up costing you and your company a lot more in reputation and brand equity.

You want to keep control over the ownership, quality and schedule of your product releases.

Please refer to the blog posts that are published on the Intel Network:
To Localize or Not to Localize… http://software.intel.com/node/326564
How To Select Your Localization Team http://software.intel.com/node/327552
Think Global and Act Local, but Be Holistic http://software.intel.com/node/326480
Top Five Software Localization Myths http://software.intel.com/node/172731

Also, our blog at http://www.globalvis.com/blog contains a wealth of additional information to help you make an educated decision. If I can be of assistance, do not hesitate to let me know.

Thanks Anna for expanding on your thoughts. I too will be interested in hearing from others with similar experiences.

In our view, unless one has a strong localization staff and technology infrastructure to handle the localization process and QA, complemented with many ready-to-assist pre-screened user volunteers, be wary of that offer, for it is destined to run into numerous potentially bad consequences.

As you state, there are pros and cons to your argument and this is why the correct localization strategy should involve both professional translators and knowledgeable local users, particularly in the initial localization effort.

We’ve published an article about how best to leverage in-country staff to get the best localization quality. If interested in a copy, please write us at info@globalvis.com requesting "Quality translation dictates a collaborative effort -- Why in-country proof is crucial and how to best structure and streamline it."

As someone who was assigned a task of translating an application (from English to my native language) several times in my line of work I must say I agree with Anna -- It is really hard to do it right if you do not know the actual application interface for which you are doing the translation.

Few examples of such issues:

- Word "Return" -- are you returning to the previous menu, or initiating return of goods / cash?
- Word "Amount" -- it changes meaning depending on the context. Amount of fuel is not the same as amount of money -- for the former you would use "Kolicina", while for the latter you would use "Iznos".
- Word "Cash" -- in Serbian it is "Gotovina" which is double the length. Without seeing the UI or a printed receipt how do you know whether it will fit? You can't.

What I am saying is that without context you have no idea how to properly translate those.

Of course, you cannot accept user translation without checking it with a professional translator. Random user may make a mistake, or perhaps put an insult in there intentionally over which you might lose your reputation later.

In any case, I would recommend asking for example Christian Ghisler (author of Total Commander) for his experience regarding localization since he accepts user contributions (translations, plugins, etc) -- he might be able to tell you what you need to be aware of if you decide to do the same.

I've worked in a project that we translated a software from Brazilian Portuguese to Japanese. Well, from the beginning you think that is just write different strings and your sofware is translated but the main problema is not to write in a different language but localizate this software.

We develop business software and the 1st challange is address. Here in Brazil, in The US and Japan the structure of how to address somebody is different.

You have problems as the position of the label and its size. Remember, not all languages the word is the same size in translation.

If you have a specific doubt, please let me know.

Not a long time ago, Microsoft has invested in something that you can change the user interface to try to solve this interface problem. But it was frustrated. The best way is you handle this by your self.

MC

localization is only a change in the language, while the content, the mathematics and the principal functions of the software remain the same.Localization of software does not just mean a translation of software. Sometimes, cultural references are changed in order to relate better to people in other countries. As an example, a reference to New York's Statue of Liberty can be modified to Paris' Eiffel Tower when retailing into France. Care is taken to see that such cultural changes do not change the basic essence of the program and make it seem absurd.

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I have used volunteer translators through community translation quite a few times before, at Twitter and Google. Other companies, like Facebook and Atlassian are doing it very succesfully.

We've been very happy with this arrangement. As Igor pointed out above, one of the major benefits is that you have your users translate the product. They understand what it is, how it works, and can adapt their translations to fit the expectations of the users in their country.

On the other hand, dealing with a large community of translators like we had a Twitter (close to 1 million translators) requires a lot of investment and introduces some overhead. One thing you're not getting is "free" translations. You have to spend time coordinating the translation effort, and as your translator base grows, you need to make sure they all work well together. In the case of Twitter, it meant we had to build a custom translation platform where our translators could meet, discuss, and work with the rest of their team. We even had to build a forum in the translation tool to channel all discussions.

Professional translators are more likely to ask questions to clarify a piece of text they don't understand, and that's the tradeoff you're making here. With professional translators you have less overhead, professionals have their own translation tools, know how to work efficiently, and usually work for a language service provider who deals with all the overhead for you, but they usually work best with larger bursts of content. In the community translation case, you take the overhead / synchronization part on, but in return have a more flexible solution that can accomodate an agile development process, deals with a trickle of content better, and you can expect very dedicated users who will suggest improvements to your product beyond just translation.

Recently, there's been a few companies, like Cloudwords and Transifex (who I work for now), who are providing translation platforms geared towards helping companies use community translation. Check it out and let us know if it works for you :-).

Dear Keeriyat,

What is mean of this code?

Regards,

David Kroj