When Culture Doesn't Translate: The Art of Localization

Some translation problems have nothing to do with vocabulary.

You can translate every word correctly and still end up with a sentence that makes absolutely no sense to the person watching.

That happens because language carries much more than dictionary definitions. Food, celebrities, jokes, measurements, memes, traditions, television references, slang, and even the way we describe distance are connected to the culture in which they are used.

This is where localization becomes something more than translation.

A real example: when a Turkish joke stops working

We recently came across a good example while working on Turkish content.

In episode 52 of a production, the cast talks about two foods that are extremely familiar in Turkey: lahmacun and dürüm. During the conversation, one character wraps the lahmacun and jokes:

"Lahmacun is the fur coat of dürüm."

For a Turkish viewer who knows both foods, the visual and the comparison make sense. Lahmacun is a thin flatbread traditionally topped with minced meat and other ingredients, while dürüm refers to food served wrapped in flatbread. The joke plays with that familiarity.

Now translate the sentence literally for an audience that has never heard of either dish:

"Lahmacun is the fur coat of dürüm."

The words have been translated. The joke has not.

A viewer may now have to understand what lahmacun is, what dürüm is, why one is being wrapped around the other, and why that makes the comparison funny. By the time they have worked all of that out, the moment is gone.

In a situation like this, localization may require adapting the food references themselves so the comparison works naturally for the target audience.

And that introduces an important principle:

Sometimes you have to move away from the original words to stay closer to the original meaning.

But adaptation does not mean changing everything

There is a fine line here.

If a character is simply ordering lahmacun at a restaurant in Istanbul, there may be absolutely no reason to turn it into pizza for an Italian audience or tacos for a Mexican audience.

The fact that it is lahmacun may be culturally and narratively important.

Netflix makes a similar distinction in its dubbing guidance. Its principles emphasize understanding the creative intent rather than automatically replacing foreign references with local ones. At the same time, adapters are expected to appropriately adapt important cultural references when necessary and make dialogue sound natural in the target language.

That distinction is critical. And it becomes even more relevant when localization involves regional varieties of the same language. The choice between Neutral Spanish and Regional Spanish, for example, is precisely this kind of decision.

The question should never simply be, "Can we replace this reference?" It should be, "What role is this reference playing in this scene?" If the food itself matters, keep it. If the reference exists primarily to make the audience laugh, adapting it may be necessary to preserve the joke.

Humor is where literal translation gets exposed quickly

Jokes are particularly unforgiving.

Take the English expression "spill the beans." Translating the words individually into another language does not necessarily communicate "reveal the secret."

That is a relatively straightforward idiom problem. The more interesting cases happen when the humor relies on knowledge the target audience may not have.

Imagine an American comedy where someone says:

"He thinks he's the next Gordon Ramsay."

The line assumes the audience knows who Gordon Ramsay is and what mentioning him implies. In a market where he is less recognizable, retaining the name may preserve the words while weakening the joke.

The same happens with references to television presenters, footballers, politicians, supermarket chains, childhood snacks, school experiences, advertising slogans, reality shows, neighborhoods, and internet personalities.

A localization specialist has to identify the function behind the reference.

Is Gordon Ramsay being mentioned because he is British? Because he is a chef? Because he is famous? Because of his temper?

Only once you know why the reference works can you decide whether it should stay or be adapted. When those decisions go wrong, the cost goes beyond a missed joke. The business impact of poor localization can show up directly in audience retention and brand perception.

Memes make the problem even harder

Internet culture has added another layer.

A meme can be immediately recognizable in one country and completely invisible in another. The same applies to viral TikTok sounds, reaction images, catchphrases, creator slang, and references to local online personalities.

And unlike traditional cultural references, these can change extremely quickly.

Something that feels current when a script is written can already sound dated when the localized version is released.

For YouTube creators, vertical dramas, social publishers, streaming platforms, and other digital-first content producers, this means cultural knowledge is increasingly part of linguistic quality.

It is not enough to know what the words mean.

You need to know what people mean when they use them.

Even "25 miles" is a localization decision

Not every cultural difference looks cultural at first.

Imagine a character saying:

"We still have 25 miles to go."

For someone accustomed to miles, that information is processed instantly.

For an audience accustomed to the metric system, keeping "25 miles" adds an unnecessary mental calculation. Depending on the production and localization brief, converting it to approximately 40 kilometers can make the dialogue feel much more natural.

The same applies to:

• 70°F → approximately 21°C
• 10 pounds → approximately 4.5 kilograms
• 6 feet → approximately 1.83 meters

And it does not stop with measurements.

Dates, times, decimal separators, currencies, clothing sizes, addresses, phone-number conventions and numerical formatting can all vary between markets. The Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) exists precisely because these differences are extensive enough to require structured locale-specific data. Unicode notes that formatting dates, numbers, currencies and measurement units across languages and regions is considerably more complex than it may appear.

Even something as basic as a number can look different. Unicode gives the example of 12,345.67 being represented as 12'345,67 under different locale conventions.

This is localization at its least glamorous, but also at its most practical.

The viewer should not have to translate the translation.

Culture can be hidden almost anywhere

Food, humor, and measurements are relatively easy examples to spot. Other cultural references require more context.

Think about a character comparing someone to a famous actor. Is that actor recognizable in the target market? Or a teenager referencing a television show they grew up watching. Did the target audience grow up with the same show?

A reference to Thanksgiving carries an entire set of associations for an American audience. A joke about GCSEs immediately means something to many people in the UK. La rentrée is a familiar concept in France, but may require more context elsewhere.

The same questions come up with sports, school systems, public holidays, music, brands, cinema, folklore, social etiquette, and countless other references.

That does not mean every cultural reference should be replaced. Good localization also means knowing when not to adapt.

At InfOhana, we look at what the reference is doing before deciding what to do with it. Does the audience need specific cultural knowledge to understand it? Is the reference important to the character or setting? Would changing it affect the story? Or can it be adapted without losing the original intention?

The goal is not to make a Turkish series feel as though it was produced in France, Mexico, or the United States. It is to remove unnecessary cultural barriers without removing the culture that makes the original content what it is.

This balance is also reflected in Netflix's dubbing guidance, which highlights the adaptation of cultural references, idioms, slang, and colloquialisms while preserving the original creative intent.

For Korean content, Netflix has also discussed the challenge of terms such as oppa and unni, where localization teams have to communicate relationships and social meaning without losing what those terms represent in Korean culture.

Translation gets the words across. Localization gets the experience across.

This is why professional localization involves several layers.

Translation establishes meaning. Proofreading protects accuracy and consistency. Native linguistic review makes sure the dialogue sounds natural. Cultural adaptation looks at everything around the words: humor, references, idioms, measurements, wordplay, and context.

For audiovisual content, those choices also need to work with timing, synchronization, voice performance, and what is happening on screen.

At InfOhana, that is the standard we bring to translation, proofreading, adaptation, and audiovisual localization: making sure the content does not just translate correctly, but works naturally for the audience experiencing it.

Because when a joke crosses a border, translating the words is only half the job.

Ready to make your content work across cultures?

From a joke that needs adapting to a reference that needs explaining, the small details can make a big difference. InfOhana helps you make the right localization choices for every audience and every market.

Have a project in mind? Let's talk.