LOCALIZATION FOR CULTURE SUSTAINABILITY:

Abstract

With the increasing importance of localization for products marketing in the globalized world, there is more need to identify whether localization contributes to cultural sustainability or not. Translators’ strategies should, therefore, be analyzed to capture the limits or liberty in producing a local sounding text. Spotting the lack of use or use of cultural references in translating English marketing texts into Arabic should help in revealing the translators’ approaches. It will also show if they handle such elements based on their understanding of the core of the target culture or that they stay on the surface of culture, changing technical and linguistic elements only. This qualitative comparison can further clarify the cultural gap which persists in the localized version and the need for a deeper approach and conceptualization of the purpose of localization.