by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/01/25 07:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/01/25/10260491.aspx
So we currently have the Building Windows 8 (An inside look from the Windows engineering team) Blog.
It is localized into French, aka Français.
And it is localized into German, aka Deutsch.
And it is also localized ino Brazilian Portuguese, aka Português (Brasil).
We didn't skip localizing into Korean, aka 한국어.
And it was also important localizing into Japanese, aka 日本語.
We didn't ignore localizing into Chinese, aka 简体中文.
And last but not least we localize into Russian, aka Русский.
As a Blog being localized, the project goals are clear.
The blog will build interest and enthusiasm among developers, IT Pros, and enthusiasts for the next version of Windows. It is the engineering blog for Windows 8, and the content is provided by Steven Sinofsky and the Windows engineering team.
For the WWLI content localization team, our goal was to accomplish the following:
We are now well over 45 blogs in., and feedback has been really good.
But we didn't stop there.
We also have a Windows Store for developers Blog, and we have started doing the localization for the very popular IEBlog as well.
And each will be localized into those same seven languages!
Quite a grid we'red building:
|
Building Windows 8 |
Windows Store for developers | IEBlog | |
| French | Conception de Windows 8 Vision en coulisses de l'équipe d'ingénierie Windows |
Blog Windows Store pour les développeurs | IEBlog Français |
| German | Die Entwicklung von Windows 8 Einblicke in die Arbeit des Windows-Entwicklerteams |
Windows Store-Blog für Entwickler | IEBlog Deutsch |
| Brazilian Portguese |
Criando o Windows 8 |
Blog da Loja do Windows para desenvolvedores | IEBlog Português |
| Russian | Создание Windows 8 Взгляд изнутри от группы разработчиков Windows |
Магазин Windows: блог для разработчиков | IEBlog Русский |
| Japanese | Building Windows 8 Windows エンジニアリング チームによるブログ |
Windows Store 開発者向けブログ | IEBlog 日本語 |
| Korean | Windows 8 빌드 Windows 기술팀 내부 모습 |
개발자용 Windows 스토어 블로그 | IEBlog 한국어 |
|
simplified Chinese |
Building Windows 8 来自 Windows 工程团队的内部视点 |
面向开发人员的 Windows Store 博客 | IEBlog 简体中文 |
Nothing short of Amazing!
John Cowan on 25 Jan 2012 8:22 AM:
It sounds very weird to talk about "localizing" text. When we localize an application (or a kitchen appliance, for that matter), we are basically changing the labels on *things*, the same things in all versions. But to localize prose is to change it altogether.
Furthermore, there is the question of the *degree* of localization. It is one thing to translate a history of France into German, and another thing to "translate" it into a history of Germany! (Presumably both versions would start with the emperor variously called Charlemagne or Karl der Grosse, and take it from there.) I'm guessing that these blogs you speak of will be mostly translated, perhaps with some amount of truly local content -- this is what Reuters does in its non-English newswires, for example.
If SIAO were to be localized in Chinese, would it be a straightforward translation of your text into Chinese? Or would it be more like "What Michael would write if he spoke and wrote Chinese"? Or would it be "What Michael (or a Chinese version of him) would think Chinese people would like to know about various topics such as MS and MS?"
Michael S. Kaplan on 25 Jan 2012 8:31 AM:
The goals of localizing these three Blogs are rather specific and cover your concerns, I think.
Localizing *this* Blog might be a bit harder to do, I think!