True Tales of Horror: Why Localization is Important

Excerpt:

Before diving into some horrific tales of translation gone wrong, let’s take a moment to discuss why localization is important, define it and how it differs from translation. Translation means that something has been converted into another language. So if I say, “the sky is blue” in English you can easily translate that to any language. Simple, right?

Here is a real-life example (based on a true story) of where things can go very wrong: An author writes, “The children could play red-light, green-light.” If you never played this, it’s a game where everyone is trying to reach the conductor who yells, “green-light” when you can move. When she yells “red-light!” everyone must freeze. If you don’t freeze or fall over mid stride you are “out.” First one to reach the conductor wins.

Simple phrase. What was translated into French ended up meaning (approximately), “The children should go play in the red light district.”

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