How do you guys handle translation for software localization?

Posted by JohnFx on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by JohnFx
Published on 2011-05-28T23:04:26Z Indexed on 2012/09/13 15:50 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 576

Filed under:

localization

Most of the software I have written over my career has been built for English speaking customers, but recently I've been working on a project where localization of the UI for a wider range of languages is desired.

I am just curious how other programming shops obtain the translations. Do they use the notoriously flawed online translation engines?

I know there are for-hire translators out there, but am I going to have to track down and contract like a dozen of them to do a thorough job of localizing my interface? Are there services that specialize in doing this for a wide range of languages?

Perhaps using something like Amazon's Mechanical Turk would be an option, but I have no idea how diverse the available workforce is on that site. I'd imagine not very.

Related posts about localization

Setting up and using Bing Translate API Service for Machine Translation

as seen on West-Wind - Search for 'West-Wind'
Last week I spent quite a bit of time trying to set up the Bing Translate API service. I can honestly say this was one of the most screwed up developer experiences I've had in a long while - specifically related to the byzantine sign up process that Microsoft has in place. Not only is it nearly impossible… >>> More
Developing web application with time zones support

as seen on ASP.net Weblogs - Search for 'ASP.net Weblogs'
When you develop web application you should know that client PCs can be located anywhere on earth. Even if you develop app just for your country users you should remember it (in Russia now we have 9 time zones, before 28 of March we had 11 time zones). On big sites with many members do it very easy… >>> More
Text Expansion Awareness for UX Designers: Points to Consider

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Awareness of translated text expansion dynamics is important for enterprise applications UX designers (I am assuming all source text for translation is in English, though apps development can takes place in other natural languages too). This consideration goes beyond the standard 'character multiplication'… >>> More
Where Next for Google Translate? And What of Information Quality?

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Fascinating article in the UK Guardian newspaper called Can Google break the computer language barrier? In it, Andreas Zollman, who works on Google Translate, comments that the quality of Google Translate's output relative to the amount of data required to create that output is clearly now falling… >>> More
In what URL segment do you have language? /en/admin/dashboard or /admin/en/dashboard?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
maybe you are thinking that this is another dump question about language in URL, but I hope it is not! I've red many articles on this, but non of them was dealing with "sections of site" (described bellow). I am programming a new application platform in laravel/php and I am still not 100% convinced… >>> More

Developer IT