3.      Internationalization - This relates more to the code-level work that is required to allow your website and/or software application to display or operate in different target languages. If your website is being translated into Spanish, you need to make sure that your style sheets can accommodate text expansion; if your application is going to be deployed in Japan, you need to make sure that your product is able to handle double-byte characters; if you want web users in the Middle East to be able to toggle between English and Arabic, you need to ensure that your web architecture can handle both Arabic fonts AND that all navigational elements and site functionality can flip to a right-to-left reading language. And so on...

 

4.      Globalization - Outside of its political and socio-economic context, this is the process of making your product or website accessible and comprehensible to people around the world.  It includes the other -ation terms described above.

 

 

We also love to take our -ation words and use strange abbreviations that only other folks in our industry can understand. So, at the risk of having the communication police come after me for spilling the beans on our secret code words, here is your "Rosetta Stone":

 

L10N = Localization

G11N = Globalization

I18N = Internationalization

See the pattern?

 

First letter + number of letters between first and last letter + Last Letter

 

For some odd reason, using the same pattern for Translation, which would be T9N using my secret decoder ring, never really caught on. Sounds like it could be an effective name for a workout/exercise program though.

 

Fascinating, right? If you ever want to find the life of the party, find the guy that works in the language services industry. Trust me on this one. So what does this mean for someone wading into the realm of multilingual communications for the first time? Here are the types of content most affected by our -ation processes: