• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
QuestionPro

QuestionPro

questionpro logo
  • Products
    survey software iconSurvey softwareEasy to use and accessible for everyone. Design, send and analyze online surveys.research edition iconResearch SuiteA suite of enterprise-grade research tools for market research professionals.CX iconCustomer ExperienceExperiences change the world. Deliver the best with our CX management software.WF iconEmployee ExperienceCreate the best employee experience and act on real-time data from end to end.
  • Solutions
    IndustriesGamingAutomotiveSports and eventsEducationGovernment
    Travel & HospitalityFinancial ServicesHealthcareCannabisTechnology
    Use CaseAskWhyCommunitiesAudienceContactless surveysMobile
    LivePollsMember ExperienceGDPRPositive People Science360 Feedback Surveys
  • Resources
    BlogeBooksSurvey TemplatesCase StudiesTrainingHelp center
  • Features
  • Pricing
Language
  • English
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Português (Portuguese (Brazil))
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Hebrew IL (Hebrew)
  • ไทย (Thai)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • Portuguese de Portugal (Portuguese (Portugal))
Call Us
+1 800 531 0228 +1 (647) 956-1242 +52 999 402 4079 +49 301 663 5782 +44 20 3650 3166 +81-3-6869-1954 +61 2 8074 5080 +971 529 852 540
Log In Log In
SIGN UP FREE

Home Uncategorized

Webinar Follow Up: Do This, Not That: Localizing Your International Surveys

image

On Tues Oct 5th, 2010, SurveyAnalytics teamed up with Language Intelligence to present:

“Do This, Not That: Localizing your International Survey.”

This presentation was attended by 28 participants who wanted to learn how to localize surveys and implement it into their international research strategies.

Main questions addressed:

  • How do you prepare your English survey so that accurate localization is possible?
  • How can you be sure that the data collected will accurately represent your international markets?
  • How will you know that your translated surveys are culturally appropriate?
  • What are some common pitfalls to avoid?

1) Demographic and Qualifying Questions.

– Education. Education systems differ between countries; a standard education list from the US won’t necessary make sense in all locales. There may need to be fewer or more options, and they may not have a 1-to1 correspondence with the US educational system. Education for people young and old are different in Europe vs. Asia vs. the US vs. the rest of the world.

– Income. Annual or monthly incomes will depend on the location. In many European countries, for example, people talk about monthly income. In Spain, income is discussed after taxes have been taken out.

It’s also important to consider that a 1 to 1 currency conversion will usually not work. The market research company should provide currency amounts that make sense in the locale where the survey is being fielded

2) The Use of Scales

image

– Agreement scales: should they be used as above, or is it preferable to have a 10 point scale where 1 is Strongly Disagree, and 10 is Strongly Agree, and the participant can choose their rating based on that. It’s not easy to translate the varying degrees of agreement in all languages. Therefore, it’s good to present one low-end and one high-end data point and leave the middle for respondent interpretation.

Other types of scales: Color scales or skin tone scales, for example, may also pose localization problems because other languages may not be able to communicate subtle differences among the choices.

3) Using Placeholders.

– Placeholders will often present problems in translation.

The typical “unsafe” placeholders include: nouns; partial clauses or sentences; placeholders that follow a preposition or pronoun; stores/locations where products may be available.

“Safe” placeholders are those that include whole sentences, and brand names (although it’s important to make sure these brands are available in the target locale.)

Below are some examples of safe/unsafe placeholders:

image

With the placeholder example shown it’s important to consider other potential localization problems. For example, do people in the target country typically buy chips at all of the locations in list b? Are all brands available in all countries where the survey is being fielded? For example, grocery and convenient stores are similar in Spain; for the most part groceries are bought at the market, convenient stores, or supermarkets. Drug stores in Spain don’t sell items like chips and other snacks.

Make sure your placeholder questions are applicable to its location.

4) Make your questions relevant to your target audience.

image

Localization issues are clear here: college equivalents, sport equivalent, ranking and availability/interest of this type of information, etc.The question above is strictly applicable to the US market. To the rest of the world it wouldn’t make sense. The lesson here is to localize this question to the popular sports that have equivalent popularity levels in other countries.

5) Identify What’s Popular with your Audience.

image

There are several issues with this list: Basic word choice, availability of specific resources (ex. different brands in different companies), most popular sites may be different for various countries for those types of services, etc.

6) Employee Surveys – Common Localization Issues
Division/Group names: Should they be kept in English or translated? A term base would be ideal for accuracy and consistency.

– Company-specific acronyms
: Should acronyms be retained? Will employees in branches throughout the world understand the acronyms as they appear in English? Should definitions be provided in the target languages?

– Employee benefits: Different benefit packages are available in different countries such as vacation time, healthcare, flextime, meals, transportation, etc.

– Working conditions: Assumptions or implied opinions about working conditions and standards around them should be avoided in questions. What we may view as inappropriate by U.S. standards may be the norm in some of your target countries. Questions about working conditions may come off as confusing or culturally insensitive. Also, how much employees can impact their work environments will vary from country to country.

– Boss/employee evaluations: It may be inappropriate in some locations to directly ask the respondent to critique his/her boss. For example, in Japan, workers may not feel comfortable providing candid responses. The result can be very vanilla responses or none.

For those who are looking to have your surveys translated and localized for you, SurveyAnalytics and Language Intelligence have partnered together to make it easier and more affordable than ever!

image

  1. Step I: Set up the entire survey in your account in your primary language.
  2. Step II: Go To:
    • Login » Surveys » Integration » Integration Tools » Translation Service

    Add the required languages to your survey. You can add multiple languages.

image

Step III: Request and accept the quote for translation. Quote needs to be requested for each language individually.

It only takes 2 business days for Language Intelligence to translate your survey and it will be imported into your SurveyAnalytics account waiting for you to deploy your survey.

Slides from presentation

SurveyAnalytics Localization Slides:

Localizationwebinar.1https://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=localization-sawebinar-1-101005203517-phpapp01&stripped_title=localizationwebinar1&userName=surveyanalytics

View more presentations from Survey Analytics.

About the Presenters:
image
As Director, Global Client Solutions at Language Intelligence, Lisa Pietrangeli works with clients to develop internationalization strategies for all stages of the content development process, including authoring, terminology management, XML implementation, translation and output finalization. Her experience working in many areas of the business, including project management, resource selection and management, localization consulting, quality management and management of the localization project management staff, allows her to approach translation challenges from diverse perspectives. With this insight, Lisa is able to help clients streamline their process, allowing them to set the stage for higher quality translations with increased consistency, quicker turnarounds, and better cost efficiency. Lisa holds degrees in Art History, Spanish, Italian and certification in American Sign Language. She has been with Language Intelligence since 2000.
image
Esther LaVielle is the Chief Education Director at QuestionPro and Survey Analytics, which was started in 2002 in Seattle and is now one of the fastest growing private companies in the US. Prior to her adventure at QuestionPro she spent 3 years as a Qualitative Project Manager at the Gilmore Research Group. https://www.surveyanalytics.com
SHARE THIS ARTICLE:

About the author
Esther LaVielle

View all posts by Esther LaVielle

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Follow-up: Localizing International Surveys webinar - Research Access says:
    Mar 13, 2013 at 12:33 pm

    […] important topic of localizing international surveys. The folks over at QuestionPro have posted a very helpful follow-up to that webinar, including further discussion, copies of the slides, and a recording of the […]

Primary Sidebar

Gain insights with 80+ features for free

Create, Send and Analyze Your Online Survey in under 5 mins!

Create a Free Account

RELATED ARTICLES

HubSpot - QuestionPro Integration

Predictive Modeling: From Data to Smart Decision-Making

Feb 02,2024

HubSpot - QuestionPro Integration

Costco NPS & Customer Perception in 2025

Apr 11,2025

HubSpot - QuestionPro Integration

Participant Bias: What it is, Types & How to Remove it?

Jan 24,2024

BROWSE BY CATEGORY

  • Academic
  • Academic Research
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Assessments
  • Audience
  • Brand Awareness
  • Business
  • Case Studies
  • Communities
  • Consumer Insights
  • Customer effort score
  • Customer Engagement
  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Customer Research
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • CX
  • Employee Benefits
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Retention
  • Enterprise
  • Events
  • Forms
  • Friday Five
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Guest Post
  • Insights Hub
  • Life@QuestionPro
  • LivePolls
  • Market Research
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Mobile App
  • Mobile diaries
  • Mobile Surveys
  • New Features
  • non-profit
  • NPS
  • Online Communities
  • Polls
  • Question Types
  • Questionnaire
  • QuestionPro
  • QuestionPro Products
  • Release Notes
  • Research Tools and Apps
  • Revenue at Risk
  • Startups
  • Survey Templates
  • Surveys
  • Tech News
  • Tips
  • Training
  • Training Tips
  • Trending
  • Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
  • Uncategorized
  • VOC
  • Webinar
  • Webinars
  • What’s Coming Up
  • Workforce
  • Workforce Intelligence

Footer

MORE LIKE THIS

albertsons-companies-nps-2025

Albertsons Companies NPS and Insights in 2025

May 23, 2025

data-augmentation

What is Data Augmentation? Methods & Uses in Research

May 22, 2025

livecast a new way to do research

Here’s how LiveCast can help you survive the great Stanley Cup debate of 2025

May 22, 2025

Credit-Unions-NPS-2025

Credit Unions NPS Leading in Loyalty in 2025

May 21, 2025

Other categories

  • Academic
  • Academic Research
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Assessments
  • Audience
  • Brand Awareness
  • Business
  • Case Studies
  • Communities
  • Consumer Insights
  • Customer effort score
  • Customer Engagement
  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Customer Research
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • CX
  • Employee Benefits
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Engagement
  • Employee Retention
  • Enterprise
  • Events
  • Forms
  • Friday Five
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Guest Post
  • Insights Hub
  • Life@QuestionPro
  • LivePolls
  • Market Research
  • Marketing
  • Mobile
  • Mobile App
  • Mobile diaries
  • Mobile Surveys
  • New Features
  • non-profit
  • NPS
  • Online Communities
  • Polls
  • Question Types
  • Questionnaire
  • QuestionPro
  • QuestionPro Products
  • Release Notes
  • Research Tools and Apps
  • Revenue at Risk
  • Startups
  • Survey Templates
  • Surveys
  • Tech News
  • Tips
  • Training
  • Training Tips
  • Trending
  • Tuesday CX Thoughts (TCXT)
  • Uncategorized
  • VOC
  • Webinar
  • Webinars
  • What’s Coming Up
  • Workforce
  • Workforce Intelligence

questionpro-logo-nw
Help center Live Chat SIGN UP FREE
  • Sample questions
  • Sample reports
  • Survey logic
  • Branding
  • Integrations
  • Professional services
  • Security
  • Survey Software
  • Customer Experience
  • Workforce
  • Communities
  • Audience
  • Polls Explore the QuestionPro Poll Software - The World's leading Online Poll Maker & Creator. Create online polls, distribute them using email and multiple other options and start analyzing poll results.
  • Research Edition
  • LivePolls
  • InsightsHub
  • Blog
  • Articles
  • eBooks
  • Survey Templates
  • Case Studies
  • Training
  • Webinars
  • All Plans
  • Nonprofit
  • Academic
  • Qualtrics Alternative Explore the list of features that QuestionPro has compared to Qualtrics and learn how you can get more, for less.
  • SurveyMonkey Alternative
  • VisionCritical Alternative
  • Medallia Alternative
  • Likert Scale Complete Likert Scale Questions, Examples and Surveys for 5, 7 and 9 point scales. Learn everything about Likert Scale with corresponding example for each question and survey demonstrations.
  • Conjoint Analysis
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) Learn everything about Net Promoter Score (NPS) and the Net Promoter Question. Get a clear view on the universal Net Promoter Score Formula, how to undertake Net Promoter Score Calculation followed by a simple Net Promoter Score Example.
  • Offline Surveys
  • Customer Satisfaction Surveys
  • Employee Survey Software Employee survey software & tool to create, send and analyze employee surveys. Get real-time analysis for employee satisfaction, engagement, work culture and map your employee experience from onboarding to exit!
  • Market Research Survey Software Real-time, automated and advanced market research survey software & tool to create surveys, collect data and analyze results for actionable market insights.
  • GDPR & EU Compliance
  • Employee Experience
  • Customer Journey
  • Synthetic Data
  • About us
  • Executive Team
  • In the news
  • Testimonials
  • Advisory Board
  • Careers
  • Brand
  • Media Kit
  • Contact Us

QuestionPro in your language

  • English
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Português (Portuguese (Brazil))
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Hebrew IL (Hebrew)
  • ไทย (Thai)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • Portuguese de Portugal (Portuguese (Portugal))

Awards & certificates

  • survey-leader-asia-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-asiapacific-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-enterprise-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-europe-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-latinamerica-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-middleeast-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-mid-market-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-small-business-leader-2023
  • survey-leader-unitedkingdom-leader-2023
  • survey-momentumleader-leader-2023
  • bbb-acredited
The Experience Journal

Find innovative ideas about Experience Management from the experts

  • © 2022 QuestionPro Survey Software | +1 (800) 531 0228
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Use