This is a glossary of commonly used terms that I have interpreted to actual practice.

Localization Terminology

Culturalization - Localizing to a specific culture’s preferences.

Hyperlocalization - This is where the most variables exist in localization. Transcreation and original content per market.

Continuous Localization - Localization is an evolving process.

Localization Service Provider or LSP - Companies that provide translation services over multiple languages.

Single Language Provider - Language service providers that specialize in one particular region or language.

Translator - The language expert who takes the original text and re-words it into the new language so that it will be understood in foreign markets.

Literal Translation - Often when you use machine translation, the translation is very literal, missing nuances in culture, tone, and context.

Localization #l10n #localization #localisation - The versioning of a product and/or service and/or messaging associated with that product or service for a particular language or locale.

Globalization #G11n #Globalization #Globalisation - Availability of your product or service in foreign markets.

Glocal, Glocalization - A glocal model is where products, services, and/or messaging are versioned to a specific market.

Transcreation - Adjustments to text are added to be relatable to the specific market.

LQA - Evaluation of translation within the context of a deliverable.

Linguist - A language expert.

Neural Translation - Automated translation that is coded to predict text.

Machine Translation - Automated translation.

Translation Memory – TMS - Translation memory is where your translation management system is tracking the translations and matching new text with to the existing text that has already been translated.

Localization Maturity Model - Localization will mature over time.

CAT Tool - Project management software that manages translations.

Dubbing - Voiceover in a different language than the source .

Closed Captioning - Text that appears for the hearing impaired that captures the language spoken in the source.

Subtitling - Text that appears in another language from the source for a foreign market.

Un-imbedded Text - Static imagery that contains text that needs to be localized. The text will not appear in the translation management tool unless it lives un-imbedded from the image.

Cultural Intelligence - There are cultural dimensions that can be used to understand how someone from a culture outside your own. The guidelines should not be used to stereotype.

Strings - Key element to translation management. Text is broken down into strings which is a small section of text that can be tracked in a translation management system.

Content Localization - The adjustment of imagery in addition to the text.

Gilt - #Gilt - Globalization, Internationalization, Localization and Translation.

Translation - #T9n - Versioning text in a different language than the source.

Marketing Terminology

B2B - Business to Business

B2C - Business to Consumer

ABM - Account Based Marketing

Brief - Project and product briefs contain general information on a specific project launch. This often includes the brand parameters, identified markets, and deliverables.

Graphic Design - The team that is responsible to create the imagery.

Art Director - This person leads the creative vision.

Graphic Designer - This is an artist that executes the creative vision.

Copyrighter - Creative writer.

Content Production - Execution of the creative assets.

Asset Management - Management of the elements of creative deliverables.

Business Critical - Decisions that are made because they are necessary.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

SEO Keywords - Words that people search for in search engines.

Long-tail Keywords - Sentences that people search for in search engines.

SME - Small to medium sized enterprises.

Deliverable - The creative marketing outcome.

Lead Generation - Multiple digital touchpoint of a buyer’s journey.

Buyer Persona - A semi-fictional depiction of a customer.

Channel - Resellers.

Direct Marketing - Emails.

Return on Investment or ROI - Monies spent versus profit.

eCommerce - The ability to pay for goods and services without cash.

Cross Functional - People that focus on the entire execution of a project.

Functional - People who focus on one particular deliverable of a project. For example: direct marketing, social media, print.

Traffic management - People responsible for moving a project through the pipeline and on a particular schedule.

Style Guide - Brand specifications to align tone, fonts, colors and additional parameters to keep the brand aligned across geographies and functions.

Technical Terminology

AI – Artificial Intelligence 

A/B Testing - Version A is your source and B is what you change and compare back to version A.

Beta - A version that is not final.

Open source - Software that is open to everyone to collaborate on.

DAM – Digital Asset Management 

CMS – Content Management System 

CRM – Customer Relationship Manager

Code - Language used to build a digital product.

Integration - Software has the ability to transfer data to other software in the ecosystem.

Unicode - Standardized fonts and emojis that are approved. If a font or emoji is not unicode it will not be visible on any digital device.