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Localisation is the process of adapting a translated text so that it is linguistically and culturally appropriate for a specific country or region.

Localising for Culture

Red represents danger in many countries, but it is a lucky colour in Chinese culture. The phrase “Stocks are in the red, is it time to sell?” would cause a lot of confusion to a Hong Kong audience if the translation did not explicitly state that the stocks were falling.

Localising Numbers and Currency

In Chinese, large numbers are counted in a unit called 萬 (pronounced maan), which represents ten thousand. One hundred thousand would be localised as ten 萬 (ten sets of ten thousand). Using 萬 correctly is essential to good localisation. Furthermore, when it comes to money, it is important to localize the currency to the Hong Kong Dollar (HKD), which is the official currency of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).

Localising Dates

The official formatting of dates in Hong Kong is YYYY/MM/DD. However, due to a European influence, it is common to see dates formatted as DD/MM/YYYY. A good localisation should format dates correctly for a Hong Kong audience.

Before starting your translation project, it is important to find out from your translation provider whether they will use machine translation. CTS does not recommend using machine translations for several reasons:

Literal Translations

Despite the advancement of machine learning and artificial intelligence, machine translation still cannot produce native-sounding translations. This is particularly true for translations between English and Chinese since the two languages are vastly different in language and culture. Furthermore, machine translation tends to produce awkward-sounding translations as it cannot restructure sentences effectively.

Security Issues

With the rise of data breaches in a highly digitized world, the security and confidentiality of your documents are more important than ever. Free machine translations require you to upload information to cloud-based platforms, and transferring important data outside company walls via potentially unsecure connections is never a good idea.

Inconsistent Quality

The quality of the machine translation depends on the quality of the original text. If the document is not written by a native speaker, or there is missing information, the machine translation quality will suffer. On the other hand, a human translator can ask questions and use their judgement to produce a high-quality translation on every occasion.

Translation technology can boost the quality of your translation projects. Some of the software that are available to professional translation companies include:

Translation Memory (TM)

Translation Memory is a database that stores “segments” of text which can be recalled on a new translation project. TM supports translation processes by significantly improving the consistency and efficiency of our translations, which leads to increased quality and decreased costs.

Termbase (Terminology Database)

Termbase is a terminology management software designed to collect, maintain, and access terminological data. If you have preferred translations of key terminologies or already have a glossary that you would like to use, we could use Termbase to help you apply them consistently to all your projects.

Quality Assurance (QA)

QA tools can assist in identifying common mistakes found in translated texts, examples include:

One of the questions we often get asked by clients is whether their files should be translated into Mandarin or Cantonese. The question is technically incorrect as Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken languages. The written forms of Chinese are Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Between 1950 and 1960, the government of China introduced a simplified version of Chinese to boost literacy. Derived from Traditional Chinese, the simplified Chinese characters are written with fewer strokes, making them easier to write.

Today, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan have continued to use Traditional Chinese characters. Whereas Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore have adopted Simplified Chinese. Generally speaking, Chinese people can read both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. Having said that, it is important to ensure your documents are translated for the correct markets since there are many terminological differences between the mentioned countries and regions.

Furthermore, machine converting your documents from Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese is not advised as localisation is required to ensure your documents are suitable for each target market.