GILT (g11n, i18n, l10n, t9n)
globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation
- Author
- Devin Gilbert
- Published
I just finished reading my students’ essay responses for their final exam in a course we have at Utah Valley University that, although it is titled “Translation Technology,” seeks to help students learn broader concepts that are foundational to the Language Services Industry. For the exam’s money question, students had to concisely explain, from a business perspective, the concepts of GILT: globalization, internationalization, localization, and translation. Here is how I would nutshell the concepts:
- Globalization (g11n) is anything a business does to
- sell to new international markets
- utilize worldwide resources in order to make their business more competitive or efficient
- Internationalization (i18n) is the process a business should go through before they start to localize a product, service, or piece of content for new markets. It is a type of pre-localization. The goal of internationalization is to
- make it so less localization will be needed in the first place
- make it so localization will be easier, smoother, or more cost-effective
- Localization (l10n) is adapting a product, service, or piece of content to make it more suitable for a new local/market, generally in terms of three key dimensions: cultural relevance, technical compatibility (this is the original meaning of localization that deals with software issues), and regulatory compliance.
- Translation (t9n) is the linguistic transformation of content so it can achieve a pre-determined goal among a new audience. The boundary between localization and translation nowadays is very often blurred, with good goal-oriented translation often intersecting greatly with localization.
My thoughts on this subject have been influenced by my interactions with professors at my alma maters Wake Forest University (such as Diego Burgos, Luis González, and Brett Rosenberg) and Kent State University (such as Keiran Dunne, Erik Angelone, Michael Carl, and Kelly Washbourne) and the regular visits my students and I have enjoyed from Adam Wooten of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.
Any translation studies aficionados out there will certainly recognize that my definition of translation is really just an interpretation of functionalism, with I think is the most convincing theory of translation I’ve encountered. Functionalism is simply the idea that all translations have a goal; whether or not that goal is explicitly stated or consistently followed is another question. I personally teach my students to explicitly set a goal when they translate.