Localization Engineering
Posted in August 22nd, 2008 by GuestMany people fail to understand what the job of a localization engineer is. I often talk to them people about it and explain what my work involves to hear things like “Oh, so you speak all these languages?”
I most certainly don’t. Engineers do not need to understand (let alone, speak) the languages with which they work. However, with time and practice, we become capable of distinguishing Japanese from Korean and Chinese and of learning that, in certain languages, “strange things” are supposed to be that way (in French, for instance, people separate the punctuation with a space at the end of a sentence).
What then does an engineer do? We are in charge of all the work involved in the analysis, preparation and verification of the files before and after translation. A translator’s job is to translate only (which is quite a lot, when we take into account how much they are paid for this nowadays…) The engineer receives the files from the client and converts them into a format that can be analyzed with the translation memory (many times, we have to make up a way of doing that). Then, the files are converted into a translatable format and the non-translatable parts are blocked — or deleted, depending on the case.
What is most interesting about the job is the lack of routine. The client sends the files in the most diverse formats, such as software, help files, web pages, Word documents, images, and others. We even receive printed documents and hard copies from time to time!
The engineer has to come up with a way of turning the batch received into a translatable format and, after the files have been translated, change everything back to the format requested by the client. Check whether everything is in order before the handback to the client, while finding and correcting occasional bugs created during the process. Not to mention that we have to answer the technical questions translators might have… All this under extremely tight deadlines, as it is common in our industry.
Therefore, next time you hear of localization engineering, do not think that we have some sort of extensive language capabilities, only because we work with several languages. This is actually your job! 
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Marcelo Moraes, Localization Engineer, worked at Ccaps from 2006 until 2008. With a degree in Free Software Environment Management from Estácio de Sá University, he assisted with project preparation and analysis and translation memory and localization tool management. At his free time, Marcelo enjoys being in contact with nature, surfing, rock climbing and spending time with his daughter, Ana Maria. |
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