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What are end Users' bad experiences with localized software?
Thread poster: xyl0332008
xyl0332008
xyl0332008
Local time: 18:35
English to Chinese
Aug 8, 2011

I just want to ask everybody here: if you are an end-user of a localized software, what kinda translation error you can usually find during your experience of the softwares and which one or ones can make you really vex?

Thanks in advance!
 
Joakim Braun
Joakim Braun  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 12:35
German to Swedish
+ ...
- Aug 8, 2011

Terms that are identical in the original language, but where entirely different terms are used in the localised language.

For instance, "line" in English can refer to a row of text or a graphic line, but most languages probably use different terms.

As we know most software translators don't get to see and use the actual software. So if the translator uses CAT to translate a list of terms, an error will be made.

Indesign has a couple of these in the Swedish... See more
Terms that are identical in the original language, but where entirely different terms are used in the localised language.

For instance, "line" in English can refer to a row of text or a graphic line, but most languages probably use different terms.

As we know most software translators don't get to see and use the actual software. So if the translator uses CAT to translate a list of terms, an error will be made.

Indesign has a couple of these in the Swedish version. ▲ Collapse
 
ÇAĞDAŞ MANDALI
ÇAĞDAŞ MANDALI  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 13:35
English to Turkish
+ ...
Ashamed of my own localization Aug 8, 2011

I once localized OS of a mobile phone. I worked on .ttx files, which were in a real mass. Perfect Matches in locked segments I was not allowed to modify (sometimes half a sentence is locked and I had to work on rest of the sentence, which gave really funny results), inconsistencies between glossaries and TM, tag errors, etc.

We have communicated more than 50 e-mails with the client during the localization and I explained all the problems I noted as clear as possible.

A... See more
I once localized OS of a mobile phone. I worked on .ttx files, which were in a real mass. Perfect Matches in locked segments I was not allowed to modify (sometimes half a sentence is locked and I had to work on rest of the sentence, which gave really funny results), inconsistencies between glossaries and TM, tag errors, etc.

We have communicated more than 50 e-mails with the client during the localization and I explained all the problems I noted as clear as possible.

And the result: I purchased a mobile phone with this OS about a year later. After trying to get to know its features in Turkish for about 3 hours, I decided that this phone was unusable in Turkish and started using it in English. ▲ Collapse
 
Arianne Farah
Arianne Farah  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 06:35
Member (2008)
English to French
Heroes of Might & Magic Aug 9, 2011

A few years ago I was playing Heroes of Might & Magic on a friend's computer in French..... On numerous occasions the text would just run on past the text box and half the sentence would be lost :-S

It really surprised me that such an expensive/prevalent/legacy/high profile game had either 1) not warned the translator that there was a character limit for the sentence strings 2) not asked the developers/programmers to create text boxes that could expand/contract based on content (th... See more
A few years ago I was playing Heroes of Might & Magic on a friend's computer in French..... On numerous occasions the text would just run on past the text box and half the sentence would be lost :-S

It really surprised me that such an expensive/prevalent/legacy/high profile game had either 1) not warned the translator that there was a character limit for the sentence strings 2) not asked the developers/programmers to create text boxes that could expand/contract based on content (these are the kind of pop-up boxes that pop up with information in the middle of the screen so changing the size would not be an issue from an aesthetic point of view since they were already all different sizes depending on the size of the English original text) and that no-one had bothered to QA/beta test the translation within the game!!!!

I must say that the translation itself was very good and it was shame that much of it was lost... ▲ Collapse
 


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What are end Users' bad experiences with localized software?







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