How important is Culture specific translations?

Question

I'm writing a framework for web projects. (In Asp.NET MVC but that is not relevant).

Now I want to save my resource strings in the database, not in a resource file. I'm doing this because its easy to edit through a web interface, no need to upload my whole project.

Now I think about how deep I should go. Should i have only one language "English" and use it for the United States and Great Britain? Or should I have different resourcestrings for different cultures? (Off course in most cases the text is the same in both languages).

Does anyone know how Microsoft, Google or Facebook handle this ?

Answer 1

Facebook has enUS and enGB translations. For example, a US English user sees someone's "favorite TV shows" whereas a British English user sees their "favourite TV programmes".

How I would answer this question myself: Do I have the resources (a native of that locale) to provide a worthwhile translation? Would it make a bigger contribution to my users than other changes that would take similar developer-time or financial resources?

For me, the answer to these has always been no so I've never localized beyond English, unfortunately. You may find the answer to be different for you though. Just remember that the killer feature is probably not your translations and keep perspective.

Answer 2

This is the distinction between "localisation" and "translation" and depends on your application and your budget.

The English language used for most commercial applications between the US and UK (and Australia, New Zealand, etc.) is the same. There are some nuances -- word endings like "-ize" versus "-ise" -- but there's usually no need to specifically take account of this.

Strangely, the principal exceptions are regarding domain-specific terms in e.g. motoring, building, and suchlike. So, sidewalk/pavement, pavement/road, tire/tyre; faucet/tap; and no doubt others.

Besides language, there are some things that have to be localised between different cultures. Date formats, for instance, are different -- 1/10/11 is in January in the US and Canada but October in the UK. Currency, too, is obviously different.

Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc. tend to have different sites not for different languages but to reflect the different cultures. So, the Microsoft home pages are the same with the exception of an "About Microsoft UK" link that takes you to a country-specific area with local content.

So:

• Check with your users to see if there's culture-specific terms that are used that differ internationally.
• Be careful to take account of dates, numeric formats, and differences in how taxes and commerce is conducted.
• Be aware of legal restrictions regarding personal data
• If appropriate, work with a well-established translation agency to get a view on "how much" localisation is appropriate for your specific needs.

Answer 3

If you are writing a framework I would implement it that it can be done, but that "American English" falls back to English if there is no seperate translation for "American English". In German (my mother tongue) there are seperate locales for German - Germany, German - Austria or German - Switzerland, but they are hardly used.

E.g. we had a software which used an (for us) obscure word for "to chat" which nobody in our office new. Later found out that this word is used in northern Germany (and we are in Austria, located south of Germany). For all the German speaking guys out there: the word was "Schnacken".