University of Washington localization training
In this article, Plarium Krasnodar's Sub Lead Localization Manager, Elvira Sharipova, describes how she went through online training under the Localization: Customizing Software for the World program. Why should a localizer become a student? What difficulties are expected in the courses? How to study in the USA without TOEFL and IELTS? All answers are under a cat.
I developed professional skills on my own. There was no one to ask, so I went to knowledge by stepping on a rake and stuffing myself sore bumps. This, of course, is an invaluable experience that now allows me to avoid such mistakes. However, I understood that not all I can and that I want to grow precisely in localization.
I was looking for some affordable long-term course. Trainings and webinars are held in the CIS, but there are so few of them that you can count on the fingers. They do not last longer than a month, so all the information in them is very compressed. I wanted something more.
Abroad, the area of localization is developing better. There is a university in Strasbourg and an institute in Monterey . The training programs there are long and extensive, but the price is quite biting and can reach $ 40,000. This is, sorry, almost the cost of an apartment. Something more modest was needed.
The University of Washington program was financially feasible and contained a lot of what was interesting to me. Even in it promised teachers who have been working in large companies for decades. So the decision was made.
The Localization: Customizing Software for the World certification program is suitable for beginners as well as professionals with experience. It consists of three courses.
The entire program lasted 9 months. Usually there was one lesson per week - broadcast from the university audience, which lasted about 3 hours. Schedule may vary depending on the holidays. We were taught by people from Microsoft, Tableau Software, RWS Moravia.
In addition, guests were invited to the lecture - specialists from Nimdzi, Salesforce, Lingoport, Amazon and the same Microsoft. At the end of the second year, there was a presentation from HR, where students were taught the intricacies of writing a resume, job search, and preparation for an interview. This is very useful, especially for young professionals.
Also, former students of the program came to classes, they told how their career had developed after studying. One of the graduates is now part of the faculty and works at Tableau. Another after the courses got a job at Lionbridge as a localization manager, and a few years later she moved to a similar position at Amazon.
At the end of classes, they usually gave homework. This could be a test that was checked automatically (right / wrong answer), or a practical task with a deadline, which was personally assessed by the teacher. The practice was quite interesting. For example, we edited the localization of the media player, prepared a pseudo-localized file, and recreated the structure of web pages in XML files. Working with markup languages even inspired me to take an extra HTML course. He is simple and informative. Only when you complete it, be sure to untie the card, otherwise the auto payment will continue to blow your money.
The learning process at the University of Washington is built very conveniently. There is a special platform for students, where you can contact classmates and teachers and find all the necessary information on study: lesson plan, videos, lesson presentations, and more. We were even given access to most of the software and the Multilingual magazine.
An exam was held at the end of each of the three courses of the program. The latter was in the form of a graduation project.
We were divided into groups and given various projects. In fact, it was a conditional case with a conditional budget, but with a real customer (we got a product manager from Amazon), with whom we had to conduct official negotiations. Within groups, we had to distribute roles and evaluate the amount of work. Then they contacted the customer, clarified the details and continued to plan. Then they prepared the project for delivery and presented it to the entire teaching staff.
During the thesis, our group faced a problem - the budget stated by the client was not enough for the project. I had to urgently cut costs. We decided to use MTPE (Machine Translation Post-Editing) for those categories of texts, the quality of which was not greatly affected. In addition, we suggested that the customer refuse to translate into the languages of states where most of the population knows English, and use only one language option for such pairs of countries as the USA and Great Britain, Spain and Mexico. We constantly brainstormed all this and some other ideas in the group, and as a result, we somehow managed to fit into the budget. It was fun in general.
At the presentation, there were some adventures as well. I attended the audience online, and 30 seconds after the start, my connection fell off. While I tried in vain to restore it, the turn came to the budget report that I was preparing. It turned out that my classmates and I did not drive out my part of the presentation, so all the figures and facts were only mine. For this, we received a comment from the teachers. We were advised to always be prepared for the fact that the equipment may fail, and a colleague to get sick: everyone in the team should be interchangeable. But the assessment was not reduced, fortunately.
The University of Washington, as the name implies, is located in America, so the main difficulty for me was the difference in time zones: PST and UTC + 3. I had to get up for classes at 4 in the morning. It was usually Tuesday, so after a 3-hour lecture I went to work. Then I still had to find time for tests and practical tasks. Classes, of course, can be seen in the notes, but the total score for the course consisted not only of the results of tests, homework and exams, but also of the number of visits. And my goal was to pass everything on successful.
The hardest part was during the graduation project, when for 3 consecutive weeks I and classmates called up almost every day for discussions and brainstorms. Such calls lasted for 2-3 hours, almost like a complete lesson. In addition, I had to communicate with a customer who was free only at 2 a.m. In general, with such a schedule, the bragging is provided.
Another difficulty in learning is the language barrier. Despite the fact that I am fluent in English and almost all classmates lived in America, sometimes it was not easy to understand the person I was talking to. The fact is that most of them were not native English speakers. This was most clearly manifested when they began work on the graduation project. I had to get used to the accents, but in the end we could easily understand each other.
Perhaps I’ll start with the captain’s advice itself: if you decide on such a training, then get ready to devote all your time to it. Nine months is a long time. It is necessary to overcome circumstances and oneself daily. But experience and knowledge will be invaluable.
Now a few words about admission. To study at an English-language university, among other documents, you will need a certificate confirming your knowledge of the language (TOEFL or IELTS). However, if you work as a localizer and have a diploma of translator, then there is a chance to negotiate with the leadership of the university and do without a certificate. This can save you time and money.
Online courses at edX from Washington University.
More localization is taught:
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
The localization institute
University of strasbourg
There are also courses / trainings:
Localization essentials
Website Localization For Translators
Software Localization Training in Limerick
Android App Development: Localization and Internationalization
Why study if you're already a Sub Lead?
I developed professional skills on my own. There was no one to ask, so I went to knowledge by stepping on a rake and stuffing myself sore bumps. This, of course, is an invaluable experience that now allows me to avoid such mistakes. However, I understood that not all I can and that I want to grow precisely in localization.
I was looking for some affordable long-term course. Trainings and webinars are held in the CIS, but there are so few of them that you can count on the fingers. They do not last longer than a month, so all the information in them is very compressed. I wanted something more.
Abroad, the area of localization is developing better. There is a university in Strasbourg and an institute in Monterey . The training programs there are long and extensive, but the price is quite biting and can reach $ 40,000. This is, sorry, almost the cost of an apartment. Something more modest was needed.
The University of Washington program was financially feasible and contained a lot of what was interesting to me. Even in it promised teachers who have been working in large companies for decades. So the decision was made.
What did the program consist of?
The Localization: Customizing Software for the World certification program is suitable for beginners as well as professionals with experience. It consists of three courses.
- Introduction to localization
The first course is introductory. I did not learn anything fundamentally new from him, but he helped me structure the knowledge that I had. We studied the basic tools, the fundamentals of internationalization and localization, quality control, features of target markets that need to be taken into account (culture, religion, politics). - Localization engineering
This course focuses on the basic skills required by Localization engineers. It was very useful to learn more about how to work with localization software (CAT, TMS, etc.) and how to configure it to fit your needs. We also studied the tools for automatic testing and examined the interaction with different formats (HTML, XML, JSON, etc.). Also taught the preparation of documents, pseudo-localization, the use of machine translation. In general, we looked at localization from the technical side. - Localization project management
The last course was about project management. They explained to us from A to Z how to start a project, how to plan it, how to draw up a budget, what risks to consider, how to negotiate with a customer. And of course, they talked about time management and quality management.
How was your training?
The entire program lasted 9 months. Usually there was one lesson per week - broadcast from the university audience, which lasted about 3 hours. Schedule may vary depending on the holidays. We were taught by people from Microsoft, Tableau Software, RWS Moravia.
In addition, guests were invited to the lecture - specialists from Nimdzi, Salesforce, Lingoport, Amazon and the same Microsoft. At the end of the second year, there was a presentation from HR, where students were taught the intricacies of writing a resume, job search, and preparation for an interview. This is very useful, especially for young professionals.
Also, former students of the program came to classes, they told how their career had developed after studying. One of the graduates is now part of the faculty and works at Tableau. Another after the courses got a job at Lionbridge as a localization manager, and a few years later she moved to a similar position at Amazon.
At the end of classes, they usually gave homework. This could be a test that was checked automatically (right / wrong answer), or a practical task with a deadline, which was personally assessed by the teacher. The practice was quite interesting. For example, we edited the localization of the media player, prepared a pseudo-localized file, and recreated the structure of web pages in XML files. Working with markup languages even inspired me to take an extra HTML course. He is simple and informative. Only when you complete it, be sure to untie the card, otherwise the auto payment will continue to blow your money.
The learning process at the University of Washington is built very conveniently. There is a special platform for students, where you can contact classmates and teachers and find all the necessary information on study: lesson plan, videos, lesson presentations, and more. We were even given access to most of the software and the Multilingual magazine.
An exam was held at the end of each of the three courses of the program. The latter was in the form of a graduation project.
How was the thesis work?
We were divided into groups and given various projects. In fact, it was a conditional case with a conditional budget, but with a real customer (we got a product manager from Amazon), with whom we had to conduct official negotiations. Within groups, we had to distribute roles and evaluate the amount of work. Then they contacted the customer, clarified the details and continued to plan. Then they prepared the project for delivery and presented it to the entire teaching staff.
During the thesis, our group faced a problem - the budget stated by the client was not enough for the project. I had to urgently cut costs. We decided to use MTPE (Machine Translation Post-Editing) for those categories of texts, the quality of which was not greatly affected. In addition, we suggested that the customer refuse to translate into the languages of states where most of the population knows English, and use only one language option for such pairs of countries as the USA and Great Britain, Spain and Mexico. We constantly brainstormed all this and some other ideas in the group, and as a result, we somehow managed to fit into the budget. It was fun in general.
At the presentation, there were some adventures as well. I attended the audience online, and 30 seconds after the start, my connection fell off. While I tried in vain to restore it, the turn came to the budget report that I was preparing. It turned out that my classmates and I did not drive out my part of the presentation, so all the figures and facts were only mine. For this, we received a comment from the teachers. We were advised to always be prepared for the fact that the equipment may fail, and a colleague to get sick: everyone in the team should be interchangeable. But the assessment was not reduced, fortunately.
What was the hardest?
The University of Washington, as the name implies, is located in America, so the main difficulty for me was the difference in time zones: PST and UTC + 3. I had to get up for classes at 4 in the morning. It was usually Tuesday, so after a 3-hour lecture I went to work. Then I still had to find time for tests and practical tasks. Classes, of course, can be seen in the notes, but the total score for the course consisted not only of the results of tests, homework and exams, but also of the number of visits. And my goal was to pass everything on successful.
The hardest part was during the graduation project, when for 3 consecutive weeks I and classmates called up almost every day for discussions and brainstorms. Such calls lasted for 2-3 hours, almost like a complete lesson. In addition, I had to communicate with a customer who was free only at 2 a.m. In general, with such a schedule, the bragging is provided.
Another difficulty in learning is the language barrier. Despite the fact that I am fluent in English and almost all classmates lived in America, sometimes it was not easy to understand the person I was talking to. The fact is that most of them were not native English speakers. This was most clearly manifested when they began work on the graduation project. I had to get used to the accents, but in the end we could easily understand each other.
Advice
Perhaps I’ll start with the captain’s advice itself: if you decide on such a training, then get ready to devote all your time to it. Nine months is a long time. It is necessary to overcome circumstances and oneself daily. But experience and knowledge will be invaluable.
Now a few words about admission. To study at an English-language university, among other documents, you will need a certificate confirming your knowledge of the language (TOEFL or IELTS). However, if you work as a localizer and have a diploma of translator, then there is a chance to negotiate with the leadership of the university and do without a certificate. This can save you time and money.
useful links
Online courses at edX from Washington University.
More localization is taught:
Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey
The localization institute
University of strasbourg
There are also courses / trainings:
Localization essentials
Website Localization For Translators
Software Localization Training in Limerick
Android App Development: Localization and Internationalization
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