Globalization/localization in asp.net mvc

Question

When there is a ready to use translator plugin available from companies like microsoft,google and yahoo why one has to implement globalization feature in an application using resource files like .resx. Why not simply plugin any one of those translator in the application and give the user with the freedom of choosing his own language/culture? Which one is better over other? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Automated machine translation is not the same as providing customized translations for different languages. Machine translation gets things wrong far too often, and can easily phrase something in a way that is offensive or embarrassing. It also doesn't take into account localization at all.

And more importantly, public machine translation services only work on public sites. Most globalized sites have pages only signed in users can reach. In that case, it is easier to provide translations yourself.

If you're making money off your customers, you're better off investing in real translation over a free service that ultimately marginalizes any users who don't speak the primary language the site is written in.

Answer 2

Autotranslate is not efficient and WILL get you in trouble when serious application is regarded. There is a very simple linguistic test you can perform on your application. First you translate from the original language to the target language. Then, you take the result and translate it back. If you get satisfactory results, you're good to go.

In fact, for some simple applications, that would be a recommended way. However, it MIGHT come back and bite you in the buttocks.

Answer 3

As I understand, these translators aren't as accurate. My last boss hired a translator and we translated the data into a separate language database table.