If you ask Europeans which countries are included in Europe, you may get many different answers. The definition of Europe depends on whether you look at Europe from a geographical, political or cultural point of view. One thing however is widely accepted: Europe is composed of many countries that have different languages, cultures, religions, institutions and customs. To penetrate the European market, and the need to localize your products for the specific needs of all these countries, you need to understand that Europe is a very complex area of the world.

Geographical

Europeans themselves have difficulties defining Europe and its boundaries. The geographical concept of the area we call Europe, the subcontinent forming the western part of Eurasia, is bound to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea and to the east by the Ural Mountains. However, if we take these landmarks into consideration, Ukraine, Belarus and Turkey would be considered within Europe, whereas in reality the eastern boundary is often subject to discussion.

The complexity of the question “Where does Europe end?” is well illustrated by the current negotiations concerning the entry of Turkey into the European Union. Geographically speaking, Turkey has territories in Europe and in Asia. The questions as to its being a European country therefore concern mainly shared values, systems and normes.

Political-cultural

The political concept of Europe cannot be fully understood without remembering its historical evolution. The movement for European unity which began after 1945 contained an important dimension aiming to remove the ultra nationalistic attitudes which had fuelled World Wars I and II. In 1946, Winston Churchill gave a famous speech at Zurich calling upon European nations to “recreate the European family”. The necessity of some type of European integration became evident. The European Union as we know it today is a result of this integration.

Until recently, the EU included 15 members but since May 2004, another 10 countries have joined. Others aspire to become EU members: Romania and Bulgaria are likely to join in 2007. Both Turkey and Croatia would like to join before the end of this decade.

However, political integration alone might not be sufficient to avoid conflict in Europe on the long term. As the former president of the European Commission Jacques Delors stated "future conflicts will be sparked by cultural factors rather than economic or ideological ones".

European Diversity

Countries

The 34 countries of Europe listed in this article are drawn from a political-cultural concept of Europe rather than a geographical one.
The total population of these countries amounts to 520 million inhabitants. Central Europe includes 160 million individuals, southern Europe 120 million, north western Europe 90 million and south eastern Europe 57 million. Other regions are slightly smaller but nonetheless could play an important role in the near future. For example, the three Baltic countries Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania represent no more than 7,1 million inhabitants, but their economies are booming with an average growth rate of 6%.

Central European countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have a strong position in Europe, great prospects for the future and represent a whole new market with a high growth potential. Together these countries represent 63 million inhabitants.

Languages

32 languages are spoken in Europe. Apart from Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian which are Finno-Ugric languages and Maltese which is an Afro-Asiatic language, all other are Indo European languages. Of course there are variants amongst these Indo European languages.

We find Latin languages (French, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and Portuguese), Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian). Slavic languages are also predominant (Czech, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian), followed by a number of Baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian) and finally Greek (Greek) and Celtic (Irish). English is derived from both Latin and Germanic languages and Romanian is derived from Latin and Slavic languages. Albanian is a language composed of Latin and Slavic but has also Greek and Turkish roots.

Some European countries such as Luxemburg, Malta and Bosnia and Herzegovina have more than one official language. Switzerland has four official languages and four distinct geographical regions where these languages are spoken.

Europe is not a melting pot like the US where people of different cultures and religions blended together far from their native lands. Europe is composed of individual countries each with a different history, religion and values. Many of the countries aspiring to political integration within Europe remain strongly attached to their national language, culture and heritage. Nonetheless, there is a widespread belief in the reality of a European Cultural Community which is promoted by the European Council withshared values such as democracy, human rights and fundamental rights. Pluralism of Europe’s cultural tradition, national identity are recognized, reinforced and considered one of Europe's strongest assets and diversity probably being one of its prime characteristics. Europe has been likened to an orchestra. There are certain moments when some of the instruments play a minor role or even fall silent altogether. But the ensemble exists.

Traveling through Europe

You will easily notice the differences as you are moving from one country to another. The language, currency and the type of food you order are different from one place to another. There are other experiences that can be quite surprising, let me give you a few examples to illustrate this.

Emergency Calls

In the US, you can dial a single emergency call number (911) and receive emergency support in English. There is no equivalent single number for all European countries. For EU member states it should be possible to call the single European 112 emergency number from any fixed or mobile phone. However, a recent article on emergency calls in Europe states that “in practice the 112 number is ‘not working as well as it should’. Problems include some countries not putting in place the resources to handle the number of languages required. In other states the right technology is not in place to locate cellphone callers geographically, and in many countries people are simply not aware that the service exists.” The European Union is spending a fortune to finance the introduction of "eCall" in 2009.

Television

If you are traveling in the Netherlands or Scandinavian countries, you might notice that films and television programs are shown in the original language, with subtitles. However, if you go to Western European countries like France or Austria, films are usually dubbed. It can be surprising for an American to hear Brad Pitt's voice and language changed. However, the most astonishing of all is to watch a movie in Poland were you may be driven mad by the Polish practice of using one person to dub all the voices in a film (regardless of gender) while the original English rumbles on incomprehensibly in the background. Polish people are used to it and seem to like it this way.

Currencies

When you travel around Western European countries which are members of the Monetary Union, you can buy anything using Euros. However, as soon as you pass the border of a country that is not a member, you have to change currency and calculate what goods are actually worth. The conversion rate differs from country to country, (10 Euros = 6,80 British Pound, or 391,14 Slovak Koruna), so, better take out your calculators.

Plugs

If you need to charge your mobile phone and/or you laptop during your trip to Europe, don't expect it to be as easy as plugging it in. Be aware that there are seven different types of plugs in Europe.

Driving

In England, Ireland and in Malta, you drive on the left hand side of the road while in all other European countries you drive on the right. It takes a while to get use to it when driving and it can be dangerous for pedestrians crossing the roads as they tend to look the wrong way for oncoming cars. When you pass the border between certain European countries, you are struck by another problem. Motorways are indicated by green road signals and national roads are indicated by blue road signals, in some countries these colors are inverted which causes great confusion.

Business Culture

In many European countries, companies have a tradition where decisions are taken from the top. Hierarchy is well marked and business people wear suits and use formal titles when dealing with business partners. In other countries, company structure is rather flat and communication can be informal with business men calling each other by their first names.

In some southern European countries it is common for everyone to speak simultaneously at gatherings. This applies to business meetings as well as social events. Such behavior would be considered as rude and unacceptable in some northern business contexts. As a result, business deals may not be concluded simply because one party is put off by the other’s way of doing business.

Localization Issues

Need and opportunities offered by localization

In all European countries, there are rules and regulations obliging companies to provide certain documents and installation information in the native language.

In the Netherlands and in Scandinavian countries more than 75% of the population speaks English. Even only partly localized products have a chance of finding a buyer in these countries. However, if you look at the remaining EU member states, around 30% of the overall population speaks English as a foreign language. Rules and regulations aside, speaking English does not mean that they will feel comfortable buying a product that is not fully localized. There is a strong national identity; potential buyers are rather protective of their native language and will not be satisfied with a partially localized product.

English as a foreign language is less spoken in Central and Eastern Europe. For example, less than 15% of the population speaks English in Slovakia and in Hungary. For geo-political reasons until 1990, German and/or Russian were the foreign languages most taught in schools.

Taking into consideration that more than 60% of Microsoft revenue originates from international sales and that 80% of all web pages today are still in English, we can easily conclude that there is a huge potential to make revenue by localizing your product in order to reach new European markets.

Selection of your localization partner

Knowledge of the appropriate linguistic, cultural, technological and strategic factors is essential in providing exactly the services you require from a localization partner, for any target market.

It is a commonly accepted practice in Central and Eastern Europe to use non-native speakers for translation. This results in translations sometimes difficult for the native speaker to understand. How would you understand this excerpt found in an expensive glossy brochure promoting foreign investment in Slovakia?

"No work may be performed under a brigade work of students agreement to an extent exceeding in the average one half of the prescribed weekly working hours. The scope of the work above shall be exclusive of any work emergency for this the employee shall not entitled to any fee, and of any work emergency in the employee's house."

The situation has worsened for the countries that entered the European Union in May 2004 as many available translators and interpreters for these languages are in Strasburg working for the European Parliament.

Internationalization – Product design stage

It is not enough to take into account cultural and language diversity at localization stage.

This should be done during product design and development.

Product design – cultural issues

It is important to bear in mind when designing software products, especially games, for the European market that different countries and cultures within Europe have different attitudes towards the depiction of violent acts. For example, Germany has a federal authority, the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Schriften (BPS), which aims to protect minors from harmful publications, including computer programs. It has the power to place publications on an index, which restricts their advertising and sale to minors. They control if a game is either excessively violent, if violence is graphically impressive and/or anatomically correct (for example, whether blood is realistically red) or if violence is repetitive and enforced or encouraged. You have to ensure that a product meets the various regional specifications, complies with the local environment and corresponds to the local needs.

European countries have also different educational systems which may mean that your educational software product will not be suitable for a particular European market while it is for another.

Another example that may impact on any commercial software product is the way a name is displayed: Hungarians expect to see their family name first and their first name in second position. A Hungarian called Zoltan (first name) Kiss (family name) would thus expect to see his name displayed as: Kiss Zoltan. In Germany and in the Netherlands however, like in the US, the first name is displayed first: Christian Meier. Adapting your product to foreign markets requires more than translating the interface, help and documentation. You have to ensure that the product meets the various regional specifications.

Concatenation

Using text concatenation (putting individual words or phrases together to form sentences) is not advisable for localization. When localizing from English into French, it is possible to overcome the difficulties. However, it becomes particularly difficult and costly when dealing with Eastern and Central European languages which are radically different from English in terms of grammar and syntax.

Encoding

Products that are designed for English Latin-1 input may fail to comply with the needs of the European market, especially with Central and Eastern European markets that have extended characters not included in Latin-1 code page. Wherever possible, I18N design should make use of Unicode to resolve these problems.

Europe as I have defined it here includes 34 countries and its 32 languages. Each of these countries has its own identity, culture, needs and potential in terms of sales. 32 languages is a lot to think of in terms of localization but there is no other way to enter these individual markets and profit from their potential than to localize the product in these languages with the help of an experienced vendor partner.

, Central and Eastern Europe Regional Manager at WH&P.