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AsiaL10n provides a comprehensive service that
spans translation, compilation and testing of
all site components, including HTML, scripts,
meta-tags, applets, Active Server Pages and multimedia
audio/visuals. For software we can arrange testing
at all stages, and for each module of the project.
Cultural and Technical
Issues
When creating software and websites for use around
the world, there are many considerations and modifications
to be made. Other things, such as bi-directional
text, the use of icons, colors etc., need to be
evaluated as well. We can help you evaluate and
make recommendations concerning these issues.
Below is a sample of some of the considerations
that must be made when programming for an international
audience.
Sorting and Searching
Sorting in English is not a problem because sorting
mechanisms are written with the assumption that
the alphabet and words within the sentence are divided
by spaces. Text in Far Eastern languages is represented
by symbols and characters. Because of this, sorting
characters is more difficult than sorting words.
There are also different sort sequences on a country
by country basis. Searching can also cause problems.
AsialLion is very familiar with these issues and
is able to make modifications to solve them.
Character Sets
Asian languages do not exclusively use alphabetical
systems; they also use pictorial representations
of words called glyphs or ideographs. Problems can
arise because many programs were written to support
characters in a single byte, while Asian characters
may require two or more bytes per character. For
this reason, products that need to be translated
into Japanese, Chinese, or Korean, need to be double-byte
enabled or written in Unicode. AsiaLion has an expert
team who can evaluate and make changes to your code
to support these languages.
Other issues
English language only has twenty-six letters in
its alphabet, while computer systems in China use
6,500 characters while the systems in Hong Kong
and Taiwan incorporate 13,000. English computer
programs cannot recognize most of these characters,
and American keyboards cannot be used to translate
into these languages.
Different ethnic groups have different preferences
in Web site layout. For example, in general, Japanese
do not like site maps, and Chinese do not like
frames (The Industry Standard). The challenges
accompanying a multilingual Web site also lie
in maintaining updates and changes to the site,
ensuring site databases are searchable in the
customer's native language, and providing quality
customer support, again, in the customer's native
language.
Most companies mistakenly presume that languages
and their associated attributes can be "added
on" after the English version of the site
is complete. In reality, the ability to display
and input of European and Asian (double-byte)
characters simultaneously on the same screen,
while working with a dynamically interactive Web
site, requires special language software.
Content Delivery
Content Development
Multilingual Content Management
Usage and Market Analysis
Database Architecture
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