To give you an inside peek into CSOFT’s Global Language department, we’d like to introduce you to Chiara Conte, our Assistant Site Manager and Director of Global Languages. Chiara has been working with CSOFT since 2009 and was recently transferred to our branch in Shenzhen, a city full of entrepreneurs and aspiring startups. In this first of a two-part series, Chiara shares her career journey as a professional linguist and localizer, and her vision of seeing Chinese companies grow internationally in an age of globalization.
The Journey to Localization
[dropcap type=”square or circle”] I [/dropcap] got started in the localization industry in 2003 when I became a freelance translator supporting European small and medium companies going global. My knowledge of the Chinese language allowed me to drive the internationalization of local companies in Italy, moving mainly towards the East.
At that time, China had just recently joined the World Trade Organization (WTO); and all over the globe, the word “globalization” referred to the expansion from West to East.
Since joining CSOFT in 2009 as an in-house linguist & resource manager, I have been given opportunities to work with many industry giants. These companies have mature localization structures. They are familiar with the TEP (translation, editing, proofreading) and QA processes, and they experiment with new tools. They also rate, challenge, train and reward their localization service providers (LSPs). More importantly, we speak the same “language.”
Driven by bright minds at the company’s helm, CSOFT started to embark on many new innovative projects by offering additional services to our clients. Not only that, but we also saw a rising trend of Chinese companies going global. This is something that I have always dreamed of and I wanted to see them succeed in my country as well as the rest of the world.
This is exciting! We are entering a new era where the direction of capital flows in the traditional globalization process is changing.
CSOFT, Huawei and Globalization
Right after the new reality started to sink in, our amazing sales team brought us a new client on board: Huawei Technologies, a Shenzhen-based telecommunication giant. Considering its size and reputation as a respected IT firm in China, our team felt honored to be able to assist them in their globalization efforts.
I have been living in China since 2005 so I know that Huawei is an esteemed company, but no one outside the country knows about it. They don’t know how to pronounce it and are likely to consider the brand among other copycat companies which face a stigma attached to the “Made in China” label.
At that time, I thought that Huawei was not ready and its localization structure wasn’t mature enough; I was comparing it with the other “giants” in the industry.
But after several months of working closely with them, I started to better understand their marketing goals. I no longer consider them as “crazy” or “unusual” just because they are pushing the envelope, and wanting to translate their products into North Korean-style Korean and other more obscure language groups. The company continues to set new trends and influence not only the industry but the whole world.
If you enjoy reading Chiara’s story and would like to know more about her experience working with the Huawei localization team, you won’t want to miss next week’s blog post. She will be sharing how the telecom giant is positioning itself to become one of the brightest examples of globalization stories, and describe its aggressive efforts to become a truly global brand.