As you may be aware, Bolingo is a regular contributor to MultiLingual Magazine, where our localization guides for African countries are featured. These guides provide in-depth information about the specific aspects of language and culture that should be factored into plans of adapting products, content or services to a new marketplace in a given country in Africa.
Our previous issues focusing on Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, Burkina Faso, and Egypt can all be found on our new website, where we share with you everything we know about language, culture and the intricacies surrounding language services in Africa.
In the Egypt Localization Guide, our contributing author Eman Abdo elaborates on some of the ins and outs of localizing content, goods or services for the Egyptian market. While her work focuses on localization in the video game industry, all of the elements pertaining to language and culture provided by Eman can still be relevant to other sectors of activity. Indeed, with the highest number of Arabic speakers in the world, Egypt can be considered as a very appealing place to initiate a company’s entry into Arab countries on a broader scale.
As a matter of fact, while most Arabic speakers are proficient in Modern Standard Arabic (or MSA), they often learn MSA as a second language; their colloquial variation of Arabic being their mother tongue. Egyptian Arabic, also known as Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA), represents a particularly interesting case, as it is the most widely understood Arabic dialect in the Middle East and in Northern Africa. This success of ECA beyond its local borders is likely due to the long-standing success of the Egyptian film industry, which dates back to the late 19th century.
Since the heyday of Egyptian cinema between the 1940s and 1960s, another form of visual entertainment is now on the rise in the region with a great deal more growth expected in the years to come: the video gaming industry.
The Middle Eastern and Northern African region (a number of countries often referred to as “MENA”) has now become the powerhouse of the genre. Among these blooming markets, Egypt presents the highest number of gamers, with an estimated 68% of gamers in 2020.
In playing video games, the player is looking for an immersive experience. Therefore, localizing video games requires a degree of subtlety and keen understanding of the target consumers’ language and culture; with the added challenge of grasping the tenuous nuances that will maintain the original material’s intent while altering them as needed for the target audience. These changes can range from translating dialogues and story lines to editing entire segments from a game to take cultural sensibilities into account.
In the case of the Egyptian localization market the majority of video games have subtitles and dubbing in MSA. Although some games such as “Detroit: Become Human”, for example, were adapted through-and-through in Egyptian Arabic.
By many standards of measure, localizing video games can be regarded as the mark of astute dexterity in adapting content or products for a foreign clientele. The dynamic nature of Egyptian Arabic, as a dialect which is constantly evolving with additions from other languages, makes it all the more impressive that interactive games created in a foreign language, often involving role playing, simulation and building entire fictional realms, can be adapted with such mastery by language service providers, that the users can believe the product was made specifically for them.
The command of the subject matter and target audience required, along with extensive knowledge of the languages and cultures involved, yet again contribute to demonstrate the importance of high quality localization services for favorable outcomes.
