I’m absolutely in love with the field of localization in development. Once, in my youthful overconfidence, I dove headfirst into translation and became the translator of the first novelization set in the Starcraft universe in Russian (these days, I would never agree to such a thing—so youth definitely has its advantages). Later, I helped build and for many years led the localization department at Wargaming (though I’ve mentioned that many times already, I think). That’s why almost no book on this topic escapes my attention. And that’s exactly the case with Translation and Localization by Elena Khudenko.
From the blurb, it seemed that Elena would dive into the specifics of the field—why it’s important and interesting. Especially since she herself has extensive experience in this area. She has translated books, brought Russian text to many TV shows (Killing Eve, Silicon Valley, and others), worked as a localizer for the Duolingo app, and translated many video games into Russian (The Whispered World, Batman: Arkham Asylum, etc.). In other words, she truly knows what she’s talking about.
And in this book, she tries to cover different types of translation, essentially following the arc of her own professional experience.
She begins by describing who a translator actually is, what skills are needed for the job, and whether it’s something you should even pursue. Because simply knowing a language at a comprehension level is nowhere near enough. Speaking from personal experience: when I once jumped into this field, not even knowing the language properly, I was more than confident in myself. But after translating several novels, my command of the language improved significantly. As for the quality of the translations—well, I’ll let others judge. These days, I honestly cringe when I look back at them. 😉
But if you do decide to go down this path, Elena briefly outlines the areas within the profession, how interpreting differs from written translation in terms of required skills and approaches, and what subcategories exist within those areas. That said, she doesn’t give equal attention to all areas. For example, the book includes almost no material on literary translation, since Elena herself hasn’t worked much in that field.
Instead, the main focus is on audiovisual translation (meaning films and TV shows), and localization—both for video games and applications, such as Duolingo.
For these areas, Elena describes the workflow in quite a bit of detail, down to what kind of materials you receive at the start, how they’re broken down into segments, and what the client expects at the end. She even includes specific templates for dubbing films, with timecodes and comments for voice actors.
A similar approach is used in the localization chapter. She briefly touches on the history of localization, then illustrates the topic through specific projects—highlighting both mistakes and clever solutions made by translators—and once again outlines in detail the day-to-day work a translator might encounter.
The further I read, the more boring the book became for me. I can’t really say what exactly Elena did “wrong.” She covers the general questions well enough, but the book still felt both too superficial for the subject and too detailed in other areas—areas that any beginner would be walked through during their first days on the job. Sure, knowing these things will help someone decide if this career path is right for them, but I guess I expected something more from the book—not just a breakdown of daily tasks, but something inspiring. And in that regard, the book fell short of my expectations.
So, without blaming Elena at all, I’ll admit that I had a mismatch between what I expected and what the book actually offered—and as a result, I rated it quite low. That said, it might resonate much better with others than it did with me.
My rating: 2/5
