Cavalcade of Overflows

A classic demonstration of patchwork English localization of Chinese software.

Layout

Chinese strings are usually much shorter that English strings. When a layout are designed with only Chinese strings in mind, UI elements tend to have much less space reserved. Causing issues where longer strings like the limited time promotion banner and footer links overflow the intended region. Despite it is interesting to see that some strings have seemingly taken the limited spacing into account, like “AI Assistant” being abbreviated to “AI asst.”

Missing strings

Another major characteristic of Chinese software, where UI translation is mostly an afterthought rather than an integrated part of software development. New UI elements are frequently added or changed without accompanied translations.

Bad translations

Translations are usually direct translations from the Chinese string, potentially lacking of context and appropriate localization considerations when carried out. This causes weird phrasings and cases like “Limited Time Only Enjoy Exceptional Discounts.” “Open now” which supposed to be “Subscribe now” for “立即开通（会员）” where “开通” was mistakenly translated by its literal meaning of “open.”

Value formatting

There is a reverse example of the classical issue of translating abbreviated numbers like “10k” from western context to East Asian contexts. In Chinese, “W” is an informal way of writing “万” (wàn, myriad, 10⁴). Here in the UI, “1W+” is used for “10000+” for the counter of “精品模版” (premium templates), which makes barely any sense outside of Chinese context.