The programme of the project “Basis and Methods of Localisation. Translation of Computer Products and Video Games” is a university course which brings together society, culture, translation, multilingualism and digital tools in order to create common European university spaces where translation and knowledge transfer are present in a transversal way to the acquisition of communication and digital skills.

This project is an international partnership between the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM, Spain), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium), Aix-Marseille Université (AMU, France) and the Hassan II University of Casablanca (UH2C, Morocco). Our goal is to promote and establish a plural, civic and democratic university, where professors and students find a university space for the exchange of opinions and the transfer of knowledge, through a transnational and transdisciplinary study programme.

The objective of this course is the panoramic study of the history of localisation and its evolution perspectives, paying special attention to the current configuration of the localisation market and studying the main profiles of the agents involved (clients and intermediaries, suppliers, standardisation bodies, etc.). The peculiarities of the subsectors that make up this market (software, web and video games) are analysed and defined, emphasising their points of convergence and divergence (in the personal, domestic, professional, business, industrial or institutional spheres), and characterising the products that are localised (operational, informative, educational, recreational, etc.) and the difficulties involved in doing so (technical, intercultural, linguistic, commercial, legal, etc.). The types of localisation projects are studied, as well as the strategies commonly adopted, the procedures and common practices, and the tools and technologies that are usually used (both generic computer-assisted and machine translation tools and specific tools for localisation projects). This course is part of the subject “Bases and Methods of Localisation” (3 ECTS) of the Interuniversity Master in Audiovisual Translation and Localisation UAM_UCM (60 ECTS) (https://sites.google.com/site/mastertravloc/?authuser=0) of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, in Spain, a pioneering master in its field whose philosophy lies in innovative ways of learning and teaching, learning based on the translatological expertise of the audiovisual and IT market, where artificial intelligence is present in challenge-based approaches in order to address societal challenges.

Our aim is to consolidate the study of localisation, knowing its main ramifications and analysing the points of intersection between them and the main peculiarities of each one, related to translation and artificial intelligence. Students will learn about the types of localisation projects and their workflows, as well as the strategies, procedures and tools commonly used in the localisation of different types of software (desktop applications, apps for mobile devices, etc.), websites and web content (both static and dynamic), and video games for different platforms (consoles, personal computers, etc.).

The physical mobility part will be running from 4 to 8 November 2024 in Madrid, Spain (Cantoblanco Campus, Autonomous University of Madrid), from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m (CET).

During these 5 days, the course will consist of several seminar sessions, lectures, round tables, an evaluation test and a translation activity and cultural immersion. In these sessions, specialists in the localisation of websites, software, apps and video games will meet to discuss current translation issues in the localisation market, present their own experiences and talk to students about real problems in the market of globalisation and internationalisation.

For more information, please see the attached timetable.

In general, the activities and proposed timetable of the training merged as follows, but can be modified according to the programme and timetable of the project:

1. Group tutoring: 4h (of which 3h in mobility)
2. Classes: 12h
3. Seminars: 12 h in mobility
4. Conferences: 4 hours in mobility
5. Individual student work: 36h (of which 14h in mobility)
6. Assessment session: 2h (assessment test)
7. Translation activity and cultural immersion: 5h

The virtual part will be running from 7 to 28 October 2024. More specifically, the program of the virtual part consists of 6 online meetings, as follows:

• Monday 07/10/24 (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. CET): Introduction to localisation in the context of translation work.
• Wednesday 09/10/24 (from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. CET) and Monday 14/10/24 (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.): The GILT Process: Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation, Translation.
• Monday 21/10/24 (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. CET) and Wednesday 23/10/24 (from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.): The localisation industry: IT products.
• Monday 28/10/24 (from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. CET): The localisation industry: video games.