The Language Problem When Using Blogger, Google Notebook from Another Country
English speaking users of Google Notebook and Blogger face a strange problem when they access these Google services from another country like China, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Russia, etc where the native language is not English.
Google will try to determine your country location through the computer's IP address, and will automatically set the default language of these services to the official language of the country from where you have logged in.
So even if English is your preferred language in Google Account, you will see Google Notebook interface in German if you check the site from Switzerland or in Spanish if you are based in Mexico.
DI reader Wildeny is therefore not pleased because he has to constantly change the language from Chinese to English each time he logs into either Blogger or Google Notebook. He writes:
Default Language For Google Notebook
For unknown reasons, Google doesn't provide an easy option to switch languages in Google Notebook but you can always access the service in any of the supported languages by appending the language code (e.g. ?hl=en) to the google.com/notebook address.
If that sounds geeky, just click the language of your choice here and Google Notebook will skip checking your physical location.
English English (UK) Français Italiano Deutsch Español Русский Nederlands Türkçe Dansk Norsk Svenska suomi Português do Brasil 한국어 日本語 中文(繁體) 中文(简体) ภาษาไทย
Default Language For Google Blogger
Clear your Internet temp folder and make sure that you have enabled cookies in the web browser. Now open the webpage at blogger.com/language.g and check your preferred language. Click Save settings.
The other option, like Google Notebook, is to bookmark the blogger.com page that corresponds to your default language. Pick the right one from the following list.
English English (UK) Français Italiano Deutsch Español Русский Nederlands Türkçe Dansk Norsk Svenska suomi Português do Brasil 한국어 日本語 中文(繁體) 中文(简体) ภาษาไทย
PS: The above trick will work just fine for non-English speaking users who are in US or UK and need to translate the Blogger or Google Notebook interface from English to their native language. Just append the ?hl=[language code] to the URL.
Related: Add Translation Flags, Google Translate Code for Blogs
Google will try to determine your country location through the computer's IP address, and will automatically set the default language of these services to the official language of the country from where you have logged in.
So even if English is your preferred language in Google Account, you will see Google Notebook interface in German if you check the site from Switzerland or in Spanish if you are based in Mexico.
DI reader Wildeny is therefore not pleased because he has to constantly change the language from Chinese to English each time he logs into either Blogger or Google Notebook. He writes:
Why on earth does Google want to do that? Don't they know living in some country doesn't mean its language is his/her mother tongue? Even though it's the case, should the users have the choice to set their preferable language?Wildeny, here's a solution for you that should override the default Google behaviour:
Default Language For Google Notebook
For unknown reasons, Google doesn't provide an easy option to switch languages in Google Notebook but you can always access the service in any of the supported languages by appending the language code (e.g. ?hl=en) to the google.com/notebook address.
If that sounds geeky, just click the language of your choice here and Google Notebook will skip checking your physical location.
English English (UK) Français Italiano Deutsch Español Русский Nederlands Türkçe Dansk Norsk Svenska suomi Português do Brasil 한국어 日本語 中文(繁體) 中文(简体) ภาษาไทย
Default Language For Google Blogger
Clear your Internet temp folder and make sure that you have enabled cookies in the web browser. Now open the webpage at blogger.com/language.g and check your preferred language. Click Save settings.
The other option, like Google Notebook, is to bookmark the blogger.com page that corresponds to your default language. Pick the right one from the following list.
English English (UK) Français Italiano Deutsch Español Русский Nederlands Türkçe Dansk Norsk Svenska suomi Português do Brasil 한국어 日本語 中文(繁體) 中文(简体) ภาษาไทย
PS: The above trick will work just fine for non-English speaking users who are in US or UK and need to translate the Blogger or Google Notebook interface from English to their native language. Just append the ?hl=[language code] to the URL.
Related: Add Translation Flags, Google Translate Code for Blogs
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Reader Comments:
Change the language from your browser. Google is smart enough to use that setting.
link
This read is a blessing in disguise.
I am in Norway and was getting troubled for last several weeks. I did even tried using blogger help but all in vain.
Thank you so much.
I use Google in English here in Brazil. I changed the Options in Internet Explorer and Firefox to setup the default language. Works great!
- Go to Tools>Internet Options
- Click in the "Language" button
- Add or move up/down the preferred language.
Thank you very much for tricks. Just wish Google could come to its senses in the future.
To dan & rodflash:
Setting up the default language does work in Google Notebook but not in Blogger.
Google does the right thing. It respects the language setting from your browser.
Thanks for this - I have been stumped for the last few weeks about why I keep getting Chinese in the Gnotebook on my desktop when I get English on the laptop.
Apparently it was an artifact from when I had added the language preference in my IE browser when I was troubleshooting for my Dad over the phone on how to view websites with Chinese text in the proper characters.
Removing the language preference from the list (even though it was second to English) did the trick.
-- It respects the language setting from your browser.
No, it doesn't. My Firefox is English-US, but I'm getting Vietnamese!
What the hell do they do in Canada/Belgium/India/etc., etc...
This post was very useful to me. I am a Bulgarian writing from Bulgaria but still I prefer an interface in English. It is a myth among programmers that users want an interface in their own language. Very few users have the necessary computer skills without corresponding English skills. We learn the commands in English and, when facing a non-English interface, begin to think, "This word is a translation of what?". To cap it all, non-English interfaces tend to collapse, leaving groups of squares or other meaningless symbols at the place of words. This problem with Blogger came to me 2 days ago. After publishing a post with much efforts by guessing which button was for what, I found your post. English interface, how nice! Who would want another one?
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