The culture of l10n

It’s important to always remember that the culture of your target audience when you’re considering localising your application.

During this talk at ScotRUG, I highlighted common pitfalls and tried to encourage the audience to think a little differently when it comes to approaching a new market with their product.

Transcript

1. The culture of l10n Ryan Stenhouse @ryanstenhouse - http://ryanstenhouse.eu http://www.freeagent.com http://www.thehappygeek.co.uk
2. Originally I planed to • Probably end up patronising everyone by a really broad overview of Rails’ Internationalisation API.. • Give a really contrived example and try to make a few points... • Worry about pitching the level of this talk just right so folks would get something out of it...
3. What I will do • Just jump straight to my point, after a flying introduction • Have some funny pictures to share • Hopefully start a discussion around the topic of localisation generally • Drink beer
4. Flying intro! • Go!
6. Understand the culture! • Google, eBay, Yahoo and plenty of others all failed in China because they missed out on this one important thing
7. Translation isn’t enough • Language is only one part of a Country’s cultural identity and there are other conventions, particularly around buying and selling that you need to understand. • How you present your information is equally as important as the language - and you can be sure you’re not doing that right.
8. A Question How do you say “please” to someone form a foreign culture to you which has no concept of politeness that you can see?
9. Politeness is an agreed way of behaving between individuals within a culture. The answer is “find out how to be polite”.
11. Colours Communicate What do you think of? Danger? Money? Wealth and Luck Death
12. It’s not just Text! l10n is a people problem.
13. Cheers.