Lost in the e-translation

Transferring new technology between different cultures is not as straightforward as it might seem. By Yvonne Cook

The potential for cultural and linguistic misunderstanding is something we take for granted when we visit a foreign country, but it is now becoming a significant issue in the world of computing and the internet.

Professor Pat Hall is one of several Open University researchers looking at issues connected with "cross-cultural computing" – how a technology developed by an English-speaking Western culture can be made accessible to the rest of the world. His research included nine months looking at how computers are used in Nepal.

The issues surrounding cultural adaptation are complex, ranging from translation into local languages to different and deep-seated cultural assumptions about the way the world works. Professor Hall gives an illustration:

"There was a computing system funded by an aid agency to control immigration in Nepal. Landing cards were collected from people at the airport, taken to the computer in the centre of Kathmandu and fed into the system. The answer as to whether or not someone should be allowed into the country was produced – a few days after they arrived." By which time the new arrivals had long since dispersed into Nepal.

The point of the story, he emphasises, is not to disparage the Nepalese people, but that systems transplanted from the West do not necessarily take account of available local resources or cultural attitudes towards time and forward planning. Professor Hall says: "We in the West are used to timing our lives very exactly. We keep diaries, make appointments and expect them to happen on time, and this very planning, programming style of living is put into our computer systems.

"In other cultures they are much more reactive – they wait for things to happen. In the Hindu calendar, for example, the calculations of dates begins only a few months before the New Year. Foreign embassies trying to arrange visits find it very difficult."

Use of colour in screen displays is another area ripe for misleading messages. Red to a westerner is a warning sign, but for the Chinese "it is a happy colour", Professor Hall says. "I went to a computer presentation in Macao given by Russians about Chernobyl, and the areas of radioactive contamination were shown in red. The Chinese found this puzzling."

Computers software systems are designed around the English language – "even in France, where they are very proud of their own language", says Professor Hall – and translation into different languages and writing systems other than the Roman alphabet is not a straightforward matter:

"The standard practice in computing systems is to embed the text message very deeply in the system. For example, spaces are reserved on the computer screen for boxes containing text messages. If the space is reserved on the basis of English, when the message is translated into another language it no longer fits – some languages require twice as much space as English."

In cultures such as Chinese and Arabic, writing is a fine art, with calligraphy conveying subtle meanings beyond the literal sense, says Professor Hall. Understanding this is important if you are trying adapt a programme into one of these languages. "You have to dig quite deeply into the way the writing system works. You want to retain as much as you can, but it may be that in many of the languages of the world there will have to be some compromises," he said.

Professor Hall's own particular area of expertise is component-based software engineering, so he is looking at software solutions to some of the problems of cross-cultural computing, in particular software which is organised to make the switch to other languages easier. Other OU researchers are concerned with aspects such as linguistics and cognition.

But the barriers to the internationalisation of information technology and communications systems are not solely technical ones. "A lot of it is getting people to think it is worth doing, because the economically dominant people are generally good in English," Professor Hall says. "One of the encouragements is to point out it is technically feasible."

Internationalisation issues also affect areas such as telecommunications and mobile phones. Progress is being made, says Professor Hall. "In India until recently the only people with access to computers were the five per cent of the population who spoke English, but there is now a powerful movement to provide services in local languages. The internet is seen as an instrument for social change."