HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life: Last Week My Laptop Died

Segment 20 - Getting Back to Business for International Success – Last Week My Laptop Died

Last week my laptop died. I woke up Friday morning, went to log on, and to my dismay, my trusty old laptop just could not fire up.  Don't get me wrong, my old faithful digital friend served me well, sticking with me through the years maintaining its American keyboard and U.S. configured digital formats...  

Old faithful, which I bought nearly 4 and a half years ago (ancient times on the electronic calendar) in San Francisco, has travelled across the Atlantic to make its new home with me in Spain, enduring a change not only in time/date display formats but also electrical voltage conversions.  I never once doubted its loyalty. Even after its last run, it still allowed us to perform a final autopsy (retrieving its hard drive and transferring the files)…but life must go on…I needed a new laptop!

I went to three stores here in Madrid, looking earnestly for a new digital friend…my requirements were simple: must have an English keyboard and operating system, and do everything I need, but faster!  Surely I could find such a match.  To my disappointment, everything I found locally was in Spanish.  Silly me for thinking that maybe I could find a new laptop with an English keyboard and OS here in Spain.   I´ve tried other keyboards, but I just can´t adjust; who wants to figure out the new Windows 8 in a foreign language?  It is hard learning new tricks at my age…the Internet to the rescue!

The best ever solution serves as a perfect case study for localization and global eCommerce – the Internet.  We went to a popular website where one can buy computers and other related accessories.  The website was in Spanish – I suppose they had one of those automatic country sniffers, whereby their website can determine from which country the user is accessing the website – although the company is a French firm based in Paris.  We found a laptop meeting my requirements available from the UK, with a description in English, and paid using an American billing address. On top of that, we managed to get express delivery within 24 hours.  

For fun, I followed the shipment via the UPS Tracking service: 

• Order released from Madrid 
• Submitted and prepared in London 
• Shipped from Paris 
• Received in Madrid
• Delivered at my doorstep
• Invoiced emailed in Spanish from Paris,
• Paid for with an American billing address via Spanish website

How cool is that? Oh and I forgot to mention, the brand is Korean (Samsung) with an Intel chip and Microsoft OS Win 8 … who knows from where the rest of the parts and software originated.  I am so happy just to have my new laptop, but just for a moment let's think about how this all happened.

How many locations were involved in the process? From building the laptop to ordering it to delivering it...how many people and languages were involved in this seamlessly perfect consumer experience for me - an American living in Spain?  Also, the user manual for the laptop was provided in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Dutch, Belgium French, Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Portuguese, Austrian, Swiss, Greek, Hungarian, Czech, Slovakian, Romanian, Bulgarian and Slovenian – 22 localized versions!  I only need one language, but thank goodness, the one I need is available.

So maybe the entire world is not a complete global economy, but the digital world sure appears to be embracing that notion, and localization helps us get a few steps closer.

  … Stay tuned for the next Segment of HT Localization Presents Language Translations for Real Life Series, where we’ll continue … Getting Back to Business for International Success with Localization (more stuff).

 To receive the new Language Translations for Real Life Series go to HT Localization Blog and subscribe via RSS or email.

This article was written by Rachanee Thevenet, Co-Founder of HT Localization.  Rachanee is an Asian-American expat living in Spain with her family.  She loves all things international including food, art, literature, culture, languages and people.  She has years of professional product marketing expertise and global expansion experience.

HT Localization, LLC. is a worldwide translation & localization agency providing a full range of professional language translation services, including social media localization, marketing translations, website translations, software localization, eLearning materials, documentation translations, etc.  With locations in the US, Spain, France, Zambia & Thailand, and coverage across all languages and most industries, HT Localization is well positioned to provide around the globe services for all translation needs.  

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