Translating is not enough: really speaking the reader's language

Translating a site word for word seems the simplest route. But the result often sounds foreign, correct yet cold, as if written by someone who does not live the language.

The difference is between translation and localization. Translating carries the words; localizing adapts the message to who really reads it. It changes the tone, the examples, the references, sometimes even the order of things, because what convinces a German reader is not always what convinces a French or Italian one.

What localizing well means

Respecting the rhythm and habits of each language, not forcing those of the original. Using examples and references the reader recognizes as their own. Adapting concrete details, from currencies to idioms. And entrusting the work to those who feel the language, not just know it, because naturalness is felt at once, and its absence too.

In a multilingual country like Switzerland, a site that speaks each language as a real language, not as a translation, makes a huge difference.

How we do it: we do not just translate, we localize, so every version sounds natural to whoever reads it in their language.