Cultural Nuance as a Foundation for Localized Learning

Culturally sensitive localization goes beyond translation

When I was a kid, my idea of bridging the cultural gap was reading the French instructions on the back of shampoo bottles, singing along to and butchering “Real Lady Marmalade” from Moulin Rouge, and relaying my Taco Bell order in elementary-level Spanish. That last one still haunts me.

Luckily, global organizations are held to a much higher standard. The results—enhanced learner outcomes and strengthened global reputation—are easy to justify.

A recent study showed that 73% of enterprise-level organizations already localize content, and the e-learning localization market itself is expected to continue growing. But, while it’s clear that L&D departments have leadership support and the budget to make it happen, that doesn’t mean they’re achieving business ROI and other common markers of successful global learning.

Many organizations fall into the trap of believing that simply translating learning content is enough, but successful training across cultures requires much more. Their biggest challenge? Building a truly comprehensive, culturally relevant e-learning localization process that not only recognizes, but accommodates and honors the differences from one culture to the next.

In this post, we’ll explore the importance of cultural sensitivity in e-learning localization, the advantages and benefits of doing so, best practices to follow, and the tools your organization needs to make it happen.

What is the e-learning localization process?

E-learning localization involves adapting training content to meet the cultural, linguistic, and contextual needs of global audiences. It goes beyond simple translation to ensure content is relevant, appropriate, and engaging for its intended audience.

Localizing e-learning content includes aligning it with local norms, values, and expectations. Localized training enables all learners, regardless of what language they speak, to access equitable learning experiences.

Why is cultural sensitivity key to the localization process?

Build trust with global learners

Course authors who integrate unique cultural values, norms, and expectations into their content avoid misunderstandings and foster effective workplace communication. Just one cultural misstep can derail a learner’s experience, not only affecting their comprehension of the content, but their trust in your brand.

Culturally sensitive localization avoids these pitfalls and underscores your organization’s commitment to respecting different educational traditions, communication styles, and social norms.

Cultural inclusion, relevance, and belonging

Cultural sensitivity prioritizes inclusive e-learning, especially for underrepresented and marginalized groups. This approach lays a relevant foundation for learning to deepen content understanding and increase motivation to complete training courses. Organizations that align content with local values, identity, and lived experiences can achieve an authentic sense of belonging in their global audience.

Breaking down cultural barriers

Building a global brand requires an engaged global audience. For learners to truly engage with content, it must be relatable. To break down language barriers, start with translation, but don’t stop there. Go further and adapt tone, cultural references, visual media, and examples to reflect your audience’s social norms. Doing so reduces learning friction and helps learners focus on core concepts.

What are the advantages of a cross-cultural training program?

Enhanced learner engagement and motivation

Ask yourself, are you more likely to be engaged with and motivated by learning content that uses baseball or football as a central metaphor? For most audiences, the answer is complicated. Do you like sports? Was there a professional team where you grew up? Was catching a game your family’s favorite pastime? Now ask that question to people in different countries who may have grown up with cricket, hockey, or snooker—or didn’t have access to sports at all. Will an NFL metaphor make sense to all of them? That answer drastically changes with the audience.

Acknowledging that cultural differences exist and accommodating them avoids this question entirely, showing learners that their lived experience is relevant and valued.

Improved comprehension and retention

Learners who have to spend time deciphering unfamiliar idioms and phrases aren’t likely to recall core concepts. Cultural mismatches only increase cognitive load, distracting learners from what’s important. Make the content relevant to learners’ cultural background and you’ll greatly increase the likelihood that the audience will absorb and retain it.

Battling the forgetting curve is hard enough. Cultural sensitivity lets learners spend their time learning, not translating.

Better learning outcomes and relevance

Organizations that invest in comprehensive, culturally sensitive localization processes see better learning outcomes. In fact, 86% of organizations agree that localization improves training effectiveness, proving that cultural awareness is worth the investment.

One thing that all instructional designers can agree on is that authenticity matters. The localization process uses local experts and reviewers to make sure content strikes the right chord with any audience. This collaboration allows course designers to focus on creating interactive e-learning content to boost engagement.

Greater inclusivity and sense of belonging

When learners see themselves represented in the content—through cultural references, scenarios, and images—they’re more likely to engage with and complete it. This is especially important in global training, where learners may be tired of being misunderstood and are prone to stereotyping.

In the same way that e-learning has improved accessible learning for those with disabilities, the localization process does so for marginalized and underserved groups. Leading with cultural sensitivity promotes an authentic sense of belonging, rather than a bare minimum effort to win over a global audience.

Strengthened global reputation and market exposure

By committing to authentically engaging, motivating, retaining, and honoring learners from different cultural backgrounds, organizations strengthen their global reputation. Their efforts to translate and adapt learning material to connect with diverse audiences increase their market exposure and trust in their brand.

Best practices for culturally-sensitive localization

Understand your audience

Before you design any course, it’s best practice to understand your audience. Developing a course for learners in a different cultural context requires more than a needs analysis. Learning styles, preferences, and needs are a good starting point. But to properly localize a course, you must also consider cultural norms, values, and expectations.

Again, simple translation isn’t even the bare minimum here. If you’re expecting to bridge a cultural gap, you’ll need to walk that bridge yourself with the help of local experts.

Use local experts and reviewers

Understanding cultural nuance is difficult to do on your own. Utilize local experts and reviewers in your localization process to verify that translated content isn’t just accurate, but culturally sensitive and relevant.

Experts can help you navigate the difference between relationship-oriented cultures and task-oriented cultures, understand cross-cultural communication styles, and provide relevant cultural references.

Test and gather feedback from all key stakeholders

To ready your product for global distribution, include all key stakeholders in course piloting. Collect feedback on content, language, and cultural sensitivity, and make necessary adjustments before the final rollout.

In addition to testing and feedback, make sure your localized courses stay updated. Conduct regular reviews with experts to keep your courses relevant and aligned to any cultural shifts.

Localization tools to enhance your cross-cultural training program

To facilitate seamless collaboration with local experts and produce culturally sensitive content, you’ll need the best localization tools and resources on the market.

Language service providers

Many organizations hire language service providers (LSPs), companies that assist in translation, localization, and interpretation. LSPs employ subject matter experts that can translate and adapt content to preserve its original intent, tone, and style. This allows organizations to communicate consistently across multiple languages and cultures.

While LSPs often provide both machine and human translation, machine translation is prone to literal translations that disregard tone and cultural context. Human translators, though slightly more expensive, can more accurately translate content to match the target audience’s cultural values, norms, and expectations.

Translation management services

Translation management services provide tailored, software-based solutions that help companies organize, plan, distribute, and scale cross-cultural content. Services are delivered through a translation management system (TMS) that automates much of the localization workflow, leaving more time for expert review.

Like language service providers, translation management services help organizations communicate a consistent brand and voice to global audiences. The major difference between the two is that where LSPs focus on providing human expertise, TMSs focus on optimizing the process itself. A balanced combination of the two should be your goal.

Course creation tools with embedded localization

Course creation tools, like the Articulate 360 platform, can be enhanced with an embedded localization tool built to translate content in seconds into over 70 languages. Additionally, local experts and reviewers have access to courses to give creators real-time feedback, simplifying the entire localization workflow.

Course creators can view, manage, and publish multiple language versions of the same course as a single item, optimizing the localization process without sacrificing quality.

Commit to better cross-cultural training, localize like the pros

Strong global brands understand that resonating with diverse global audiences takes time, resources, and help from local experts. Cultural sensitivity as part of your localization process is key, ensuring that diverse audiences can connect with the content on a personal level. With determined effort and the right tools on your side, a culturally sensitive localization process is not only doable, but necessary.

Worried the localization process will distract from daily operations? Learn how to upgrade your e-learning localization without disruption, and check out this demo video to see just how simple effective localization can be.