Re: ESL & vice versa

[Douglas Thayer <douglas_thayer -at- SMTPLINK -dot- SYSCOM -dot- COM -dot- TW>]

This is for anyone who works with translation/international issues:

My (software) company is creating several tests/exercises to screen
potential distributors overseas, mostly in Europe and Asia.  Our software
and all manuals are in English, but I assume most of these people use
English as a second language.  So here's the question:

Will they know the phrase "vice versa?"  If not, what is a not-too-wordy
replacement phrase that implies the same thing?

****************************************

Suzanne:

Here on Taiwan, software (and its documentation) needs to be localized in
order to sell. English is clearly the second [Western] language of choice.
But when it comes to convincing people to part with their money, that is not
good enough.

In years past, there was always a substantial lag between releases of the
English and Chinese versions of software. However, near simultaneous releases
are now common. There are Chinese (i.e., double-byte) releases of the Windows
95 beta.

In a related issue, the R.O.C. government just passed a law requiring Chinese
content in all imported consumer product labels. I believe that most
multinationals with any hope of getting market share have already completely
localized their products.

[FYI, I am not engaged in the business of localizing software to Chinese. My
job is to help "localize" Taiwanese software to English.]

        Douglas Thayer
        <douglas_thayer -at- smtplink -dot- syscom -dot- com -dot- tw>
        Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China