Foreign Faux Pas: culture--the final barrier to going global. (Cover Story).(the globalization of e-learning)

E-Learning, July, 2002 by Sakurai, Jennifer M.

Nibongo o wakarimasu ka? Do you understand Japanese? Or maybe I should use the verb sbaberu or banasu (more to do with talking than just understanding). As I ponder even this simple question, I'm glad I don't have to worry about translating software. Frankly, as long as you're comfortable with the language in question, translating it is probably a comparatively easy task.

However, the globalization of an e-learning initiative goes far beyond simply translating the text. "The most common problem with globalization is that people think it's just a matter of translation," says B. Smith Yewell, president and CEO of Welocalize. "This attitude wastes a lot of time in terms of a learning curve.

Globalization is not a feature of the product but a function of...

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