45-INTERNATIONALIZATION

When the world wide web was originated, English was the commanding language and other countries accepted this. Today countries around the world are using thousands of web sites and Internet users are actively choosing to visit web sites that are written in their own languages.

English-speaking Internet users account for 51.3% of the world's 302-million online population. English speakers account for 32% of the world's $33.7 trillion economy Among the world's Internet surfers, 31.8% speak European languages and 16.9% speak Asian languages. On a world wide basis, the percentage breakdown of the major languages spoken by online users is: English 51.3%, Japanese 7.2%, German 6.7%, Spanish 6.5%, Chinese 5.2%, French 4.4%, Korean 3.6%, Italian 3.3%, and Dutch 2.0%

By the end of 2001, these numbers are expected to grow by 20.1% in the Asia/Pacific Rim to 17.50 million, by 24% in Europe to 22.87 million, and by 51.6% in Latin America to 10.16 million

Internationalization, which includes developing or modifying your web site design and content so that it is user-friendly for both: Your international visitors who speak English, and Future translation and localization requirements. Some companies go on to do only limited translation and localization.

Webmasters need to decide whether Unicode or Double-Byte Character Set code should be used. The latter code is used when localizing web sites into Japanese, Chinese, and Korean languages where single-byte code can't represent the large character sets used in those languages.If the selected code is a double-byte character set, the character set used for each language should be specified in the HTML source code.For example, for web sites which will be translated into Simplified Chinese, the most common encoding is "Big5", and for Japanese sites - "shift_jis" is used.

When developing or modifying a site, limit the code to one locale format, or write separate applications for different locales.-- Reduce translator errors by separating web site code from the strings of translatable text used on your web site. This will prevent translators from making errors such as omitting some of the text that needs translation, or from translating the code itself. Also, place the text that requires translation into a database, a separate file, or in a certain location within a file.The text can be exported from the databases into a different format (HTML or Excel) and then given to translators, thus ensuring the translation of the correct strings of text.

Write the English content for your site in an unambiguous fashion.Try to avoid cultural references whenever possible. Keep in mind that it is especially difficult to translate humor, colloquialisms, or ethnic and historical references. In most cases such sections will have to be rewritten for international audiences.-- Keep your terminology consistent throughout the text, especially when referring to the same concepts in different areas of your web site. Use industry-standard terminology instead of technical jargon, otherwise, it may be confusing for translators or foreign visitors. Consistency and uniformity of text are essential elements of an accurate and time-efficient localization process.

Most languages take up more space than English. Therefore, provide an additional 20 to 30 percent additional space for future text expansion. This is especially important for small text blocks (such as cells in a table) and short phrases (such as company slogans). For example, in Asian, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern languages text may expand, and require more room, because of the necessary changes in font type, size, and even text direction (as with Arabic).

Store all graphics in special folders, separate from HTML and other files. This will make it easier to analyze the site for localization.- When designing your web site, leave the text outside of the graphics.

Inna Kassatkina is the Editor of Global Communicator at mailto:inna@globallanguages.com

Services & Prices

All Non-Asian Languages

$ 60.00 per page*

All Asian Languages

$ 120.00 per page*

 

*A page is equal to 1800 bytes.

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