Translation and localisation are related but clearly distinguishable concepts, so why are they often confused? What exactly is so-called website or software localisation? How does it differ from “traditional” translation, and what does Marvel Studios’ Captain America have to do with it?

We are going to explain all this in 5 paragraphs:

Translation is something that has been done since prehistoric times. One of the most important and oldest translations is that of the Old Testament in the Bible, from Hebrew into Greek, in the 3rd century BC. So, we can say that translation is one of the oldest disciplines in the world.

Localisation began in the 1980s. It consists of adapting a product (a website, a video game, an app, etc.) to a specific market and culture. This includes translating the texts into another language, of course, but doing it from a marketing point of view: Who is our product aimed at, how can we make it more attractive, what needs to be changed to generate the same reaction in a different audience?

Culture is everything: localising your website for the American market is not the same as localising it for the Asian market. Apart from translating the texts, visual aspects must be though through. For example: in India, Japan and China, white is the colour of mourning and one must know when to use it (and when not to). Or in Arab countries they read from right to left, so one must also change the order of all the visual elements.

Indeed. With translation, the aim is to translate a text from one language to another while staying true to the original as much as possible. However, when we localise, what we are interested in adapting a product to another culture: this includes translating texts, adapting images, audio and even making structural changes.

Captain America will provide us with a great example of localisation in film: in the movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, the Marvel superhero wakes up after years of hibernation. To keep track of the important events he has missed, he writes things down on a list. This list was changed to suit each country where the film was released.

Here are two examples, can you spot the differences?