ROAR: Speedbumps
Episode Name: Localization, from China to International
Interview with Felicia Huang
Produced by Vicky Yu
Vicky Yu 0:20
Welcome and thank you for listening to ROAR: Speedbumps. My name is Vicky. I’m currently a graduate student at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, studying translation and localization management. For those unfamiliar with the title, we are a student led podcast designed to address speed bumps or challenges that exist in the localization industry. We speak with students, educators and industry professionals to learn about the speed bumps and discuss possible solutions. Today, it’s my honor to bring one of these professionals, my dear friend, Felicia Huang. She is my colleague now at Nordic Naturals. We’re both from Taiwan. And she is my teammate who helps me grow and understand our company step by step during these months I work as an intern at Nordic Naturals.
Hi Felicia.
Felicia Huang 1:16
Hi Vicky.
Vicky Yu 1:18
Um…Thank you so much for being here with us today. I really appreciate the time; I know you’re getting busier and busier nowadays. So, do you mind just briefly sharing a little bit of information about yourself, your background and how you get into this industry.
Felicia Huang 1:37 Sure. Um… As Vicky just mention I also coma from Taiwan and about 7 years ago I came to the US to study master program also at Monterey Institute. And my major is Environmental Policy. I graduate from graduate school, I went back to Taiwan for a year and half, and I really want to come back to the US and started my career here as a professional. And because my major was Environmental Policy, focus on sustainability, I had been talked to my career advisor at MIIS, and she told me that Nordic Naturals is very focus on sustainability this area. That’s why we also have an alumnus who working in this company. That’s how I get into this industry and started to work in Nordic Naturals with the Chinese market. And now I, when I went, when I went into, when I started in Nordic Naturals, I was focus on the Chinese Ecommerce website audition that we had never have before at Nordic Naturals before, so I audit the website, and then finally we launched. Right now, Chinese customers can buy directly from our website, and their products will be shipped directly from the US California fac(tory)…our warehouse. So, I am really glad I can join this project. And after working in International Team, China Team has become bigger and bigger that’s how Vicky join us together to work on the Chinese market. And because I am so focus on the work with the Ecommerce website, that’s why I transfer to Web Team, Ecommerce Web Team and now focus on the whole Nordic Naturals’ official websites, not only focus on China website anymore, but also other countries’ websites, such as the US website, Norway website, and Peru website, Canada website, etc. So, that is just a little bit background of me. Thank you.
Vicky Yu 4:04
Thank you, Felicia. And you know, Felicia, I am always impressed by your work. Um…As you mention…Ah…You are also one of our MIIS alumni, and I know that you talk about you are in, you study the IEP, International Environment Policy program, but as a TLM student, I would like to say that you’re doing exactly the TLM work here at Nordic Naturals. Eh…Like, you are, if I, if my understanding is right, you are the one who like started to localize our Chinese Ecommerce website as well as relevant materials like, for expanding our Chinese market. And you were, I think you were literally the first one working in the Chinese Team and started all the translation and localization work from the very beginning. And now in the Ecommerce Web Team, as you mention, you not only need to take, still take care of our Chinese website but also need to manage websites in other languages. And, like, oh, you talked the Canadian, Peru website, and, and so on. So, what I am interesting in is, um, you know, the reason for inviting you to do this podcast and discussion was because we’re really curious about the so-called speed bump, um, speed bumps, or challenges that professionals or students are facing in the industry. So, I wanted to ask you if, um, you know, are there any challenges that you’re currently facing? Or have you witnessed any of these speed bumps or challenges during the time in the industry?
Felicia Huang 5:53
Sure. Actually, there are a lot of challenges when doing localization management or manage different languages websites. The first thing of course is, trying like, a different language. Cause even though I was starting from the Chinese website, that is the language I am familiar with, but when I was working on the Peruvian website, it was built in Spanish, and I won’t be able to translate all the different languages or even though we’re doing the management to get the translation from other teammates, what I can do is to check all the websites it looks fine with all the elements there, but I won’t be able to read all the languages, and to see if there’s typos or any changes, so I think that will be the biggest challenge even though the whole website structure is the same, but then for someone is not speaking the same language for the localization management website, it’s kind of hard.
And the second thing is when we, we’re doing localization management for the website, there are so many different roles or people we need to communicate and work with, so the whole timeline will be including a lot of communications, and the email back and forwards, and discussion. I think these are all the challenges that we will face as a localization management, manager.
Vicky Yu 7:43
Um, yeah, that’s also how I feel like, um, in our, in the localization industry, like professional term we call, like, eh, we’re working on the client side. Um… I lot of people will feel that working for the language service provider, the eh, LSP, might be like more, more hard work, or more difficult; working on the client side is more relaxed, but actually, I agree with what you said, a lot of our, like our project timeline, sometimes, eh, they’re more, eh, more factors that we cannot control, and we need to shoot, shoot email back and forth with a lot of like, eh, other, eh, our teammates, or our colleagues working in another team, and more factors to be considered about.
And another thing I am very curious about is that, eh, you know, as we know you just, eh, transferred from our team, China Team, to the Web Team, eh, Ecommerce Web Team, do you feel any huge differences among the work your dealing with every day?
Felicia Huang 9:01
Yeah. Definitely there are way more workload and different texts after transfer from China Team to Ecommerce Web Team. When I was in China Team, my work was more focus on the Chinese website and the whole strategy, marketing strategy for just the Chinese market, but after I transfer to Ecommerce Web Team, my job is not only focus on China market anymore. It shifts more for mostly for the online Ecommerce website, management, and aiming management. So, right now I am also learning the platform that we’re using for our website Magento website. So, I am also taking classes, so, for how to manage the website and to learn all the admins functionalities in Magento websites. That’s why I can start to take steps and take over all the management admins management work on the Magento website for all different languages’ websites for Nordic Naturals. And for this I think, of course, to have teammates who are mostly developers or engineers, and then I will be mostly learning some a little bit coding stuff, and some, the whole vibe is different from just coming from the marketing team.
Vicky Yu 10:47
You still, you also need to, as you talk, you just talk about you also need to work on a little bit coding now?
Felicia Huang 10:54
Well, not actually working on the coding, but then on the platform, there are a lot of pages or website structure that are our developers’, when they are building the sites, it was in code, so I just need to like learn how to read it. I don’t need to write a code, but then, it’s just not for me, my background is not engineering, so I am not familiar with coding, so when I am doing this new role as my job, I will have to learn how to distinguish where is the content part and where is coding, and I think that is not only a challenge for me, but is also a new thing that I should learn.
Vicky Yu 11:39
Um, yeah, well, eh, when it comes to like we’re talking about coding now. Because there’s actually a, like people talk about in our program, like, eh, do we need to learn to, eh, people want to be a localization project manager, or people doing, eh, working in localization industry, do we really need to learn coding, like programming languages? And one of our professors said that theoretically, no, you don’t need to learn coding, then you can survive, but practically, if you don’t know coding, it will make you a lot of trouble when you’re doing the work. So, do you agree with this? Like, do you also recommend people who would like to step into this industry, doing this kind of, like localization work, do you think that coding, or like program(ming) languages is, eh, something we need to, we really need to learn?
Felicia Huang 12:44
Well, I think it will be a plus. I won’t say it’s necessary cause as me as a non-developer position that to work on the Magento platform is actually the interface is already very, um, there design is very easy for non-developer to actually start to build a website without knowing any coding or engineering languages. So, I would say it’s not necessary, especially if your company has, if your company has your own web team, like our company right now, we have our own developers, engineers, then I don’t really have to learn any coding. But if you do learn some coding languages, and I think it will be a plus for you. And sometimes when you are dealing with some pages and website structure, and you will need coding. It’s easier for you to distinguish and make your work faster.
Vicky Yu 13:54
I really appreciate that you help me with the training of Magento, and I guess our China Manager is also very happy with that because that will facilitate our workflow. And thank you again for take part in this speedbump talk. And before I let you go, do you have, do you mind sharing something fun, like during this time when we all work from home? Or are there any interesting thing you suggest us to try while not being able to walk around as usual? Or do you miss our company?
Felicia Huang 14:32
Yeah. Definitely. It’s a different working style like working from home. Even though like our team, most of our team members are engineers and developers, and that they can definitely work from home all the time. And our team usually has one day work from home during the week, but to work from home right now for 3 weeks. I think it’s been a challenge for everyone, and that it’s really different, and you don’t go to the office, you don’t see a teammate, and I definitely miss them. And one of the things I think that we save a lot of commuting time, and I’ll just like watching some new shows, new, eh, new movies, also trying to learn some new skills. So, to read a book or listen to music, just relax, or reset yourself. I think it’s actually a very good opportunity for everyone to resetting their life and then to spend time with their family.
Vicky Yu 15:43 Thank you, Felicia. I really appreciate that you join our Speedbumps talk, and I guess it’s all the time we have for today. And we thank you, eh, our listeners, for tuning into our episode of Speedbumps. Have a great day and of course take care at this moment. Watch out for more Speedbumps! Thank you.
Felicia Huang 16:08
Thank you.