Jianjun's Blog

Some people told me if you search certain keywords using Google toolbar, Google will show up some funny results. I just tried a few, nothing happened. But my last try ‘Microsoft’ did give me the following:

This is an ad for Microsoft Forefront on the top of the result page. The funny thing is it attracted my attention not because it was in that salient position, but because it looked like a hoax! (Of course, I was expecting something funny to appear.)

Both the language used and the formatting of the tag line looked unprofessional. What is 官网? Is it something from the Mars or Microsoft-invented rubbish? To me, if there does exist such a 官网 (literally, a web site for officials), it must be another privileged (virtue) venue for those corrupt public officials. But the stupid thing hasn’t started yet.

Clicking on that link took me to an orange-colored flash web site with a PC-game-style music playing in the background. The line at the bottom says this:

‘Building this web site won’t hurt assassins, aliens or secret agents.’

What a stupid idea to put such a line here! This is totally irrelevant.

Then a few seconds later, a guy in shirt and tie appeared , constantly shivering, waiting for you to choose an opponent to fight with…

I chose an assassin and this guy conquered him by tickling him to death!

Localization is not supposed to be like this, especially when two cultures are inherently different. What in one culture produces eye-popping or jaw-dropping effects may in another culture make people feel disgusted. Besides this, irresponsible localization not only wastes a lot of efforts and money, but also turns a promotional campaign into a total failure, thus resulting in more revenue loss.

Further resources:

The ad’s English version is much better: Succinct and to the point.

English version displays this line at the bottom of the page:

The Chinese translation changed it to ‘Building this web site won’t hurt assassins, aliens or secret agents.’ If the original meaning were accurately conveyed, Chinese readers may understand it better.

To compare:

English site
Chinese site

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