Language is tricky business. Global corporations and the European Union have turned to translation technology to bring breakthroughs in the language barriers laid down at Babel.
by Mike Bennett
America has gotten used to throwing
its weight around in the world. By its bountiful resources and by the
sheer size of its internal market, the United States carries enormous
economic clout. The ugly American-the traveler or businessman who expects
everyone else to speak his language and do things his way-has had a major
impact on the world.
Add that to the influence of Britain and
its former Commonwealth of English-speaking nations. Businesses and
individuals around the world have seen the advantages of learning at
least a little English, and various multinational corporations have
adopted English as their lingua franca.
Some have predicted that this trend will
continue till English completely dominates the world. But the business
reality is different.
American companies are finding what European
companies have long known: to grow internationally, you have to make
your product make sense in the local language and market.
Even though English is being spoken more
widely around the globe, we are a long way from an English-only world.
No, today the Tower of Babel is being reengineered in different ways.
It's not that global businesses wouldn't
like a single language. But when Microsoft and most of the major U.S.
software companies make half of their money outside the United States,
they quickly learn what the Japanese, French, Italian, German and Spanish
speakers will buy. Adapting a piece of software for the Japanese market
may cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but losing those sales can
make an even bigger impact on the bottom line.
Turning to technology
Every industry has its lingo, and the language
industry is no exception. As editor of MultiLingual Computing & Technology magazine,
I became immersed in this specialized field where software makers find
they have to internationalize and localize their software,
interfaces, documentation and marketing materials for specific language
markets. At about $2 billion a year, this localization industry is just
a tiny segment of the entire economy. Still, companies providing these
services have been experiencing growth rates of 30, 50 or even 100 percent,
year after year.
