Czech-based Moravia will soon open in Monterey.

The city of Monterey now has more backing to its self-described title of Language Capital of the World. Moravia, a Czech-based translation and localization service, plans to open later this spring.

“There are great resources in Monterey. It’s an international community supported by academic institutions,” says Valeska van Vliet, Moravia’s site operations manager. Van Vliet, who graduated from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies with a professional certificate in French and Russian translation, says Moravia initially will hire 80 people, drawing from local talent to ramp up.

Moravia is moving into a facility at 787 Munras Ave. and will offer translation and localization in 26 languages, serving many Silicon Valley companies.

Localization differs from translation in that it takes into account both culture and dialect. If someone in Japan uses a website that has gone through Moravia’s localization service, they would see it as Japanese, even if it were developed in the U.S., van Vliet says.

With the addition of Moravia, Monterey increases its stock of world-class language schools and businesses, including the Defense Language Institute, MIIS and LanguageLine.

Monterey Deputy City Manager Dino Pick, who speaks six languages, and Monterey County Business Council President Mary Ann Leffel worked behind the scenes for more than a year to bring Moravia to Monterey.

“This is textbook economic development,” Leffel says of Monterey’s recent push to market itself as a destination for global language firms.