In today’s economy, every small or big company has priority on customer first. Every organization/institution has the primary aim of connecting with the customers in this competitive global market. For this reason, it is important to provide products or services by taking the local necessity and values of the customers into account. It is needless to state here that if you want to be more customer-centric, then the key is localization. Localization has created tremendous scope for the international brands in India and as a result, it is also creating employment opportunity. India is known for its cultural diversity. India has so much scope for business that many developed, rich countries are always eager to invest in its market. For this they have already started understanding the minds and hearts of the people and accordingly they are localizing their products and services. Though localization, as an industry, is a recent phenomenon in India, it is growing fast. Odisha has also witnessed the development of this industry. Language speaker’s data prove that Odia speakers are not only found in Odisha these days, but also outside Odisha. Odia is also second official language of Jharkhand, more than 10 lakhs Odia users reside in Chhattisgarh as well. Odia speakers are also found in other states of India. Odia is a well-established language which has received classical status recently and Odia speakers in villages and sub-urban or urban areas prefer to communicate in Odia, to watch films/serials in Odia, they use Odia at home and outside home also. To understand their minds/hearts and accordingly prepare the language of the products is attracting them. And it is localization that has made this possible and its demand is high these days.
In spite of such opportunities, it is surprised to see that less number of people prefer localization as a profession. The main reason for this is lack of proper dissemination of information. As for example, there is no dearth of efficient and skilled people in Odisha, but most of them do not know that there is an industry called localization and it can give a full time job opportunity.
The person who is doing localization, his/her aim should not be literal translation but he/she should focus on target users. Sometimes, it is seen that some linguists use old words instead of available colloquial words. The users can’t understand the old words or the users feel very odd about some words which come from Hindi or Bangla. Sometimes, the target text does not give the intended meaning of the source and misleads the users. This is why the linguists fail to gain the practical experience.
There are a number of benefits of making localization as a profession.
- One can work from anytime anywhere. As for examples, at the time of Covid pandemic, people are worried about their jobs but localization industry is growing like anything. People are at home as per the government rules and are able to earn from home.
- This is a developing industry.
- This is a good means of earning.
Many people are not aware of the above mentioned facts, even they do not know that localization as a means of earning has tremendous opportunity. Linguists have started getting benefits from this. Localization fee is based on the experience and the type of job. One can opt either for freelancing mode or full time mode.
Localization is highly promising for the international brands like Google, Microsoft, Amazon so on and so forth. They have been localizing their products and services in Indian languages. Indian companies like PhonePe, Flipkart are also into this industry.
Mostly localization here includes product, its types, services and related works, various steps of using these, terms and conditions etc and etc. At present, localization has been a great means to attract the users in the field of advertisement. The clients are mostly interested in localizing their products and services in regional languages which include poster writing, hoarding writing, voice over for videos so on and so forth. As a result of this, their products and services will be popular in urban as well as in rural areas. Many companies like Oral-B, Vita drop are also promoting their products in various languages. Even, Ruchi, a company from Odisha, has localized its products in Hindi and made popular in Hindi market. There are some companies who have been facilitating localization services for various brands in Indian languages. One such company is Magnon Sancus. By providing high quality services to the clients promptly, this company has been successful in a short period of time. Based on the brands, this company trains its translators/reviewers/linguists for providing accurate error-free high quality services to the clients.
If one wants to build his/her career in the field of localization, he/she must have some basic qualifications and experience. Knowledge of native language and English language, grammar, composition, comprehension, basic linguistic skills of both source and target language etc are the basic requirements for localization. Apart from this, one has to meet the deadline of the work as per the requirement of the client.
Localization industry is growing rapidly and causing a spike on the employment opportunity. As users are more inclined towards local languages, the growth of this industry will be unstoppable. So this can be accepted as a secure and good means of earning profession. This will be not only a means of earning but also it will popularize the mother-tongues for the generations to come.
May 22, 2021 — magnon