this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025

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399

why are website language switchers in the current language? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago by beerclue@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

118 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This always annoys me. I land on a site that's in a language I don't understand (say, Dutch), and I want to switch to something else. I open the language selector and... it's all in Dutch too. So instead of Germany/Deutchland, Romania/România, Great Britain, etc, I get Duitsland and Roemenië and Groot-Brittannië...

How does that make any sense? If I don't speak the language, how am I supposed to know what Roemenië even is? In some situations, it could be easier to figure it out, but in some, not so much. "German" in Polish is "Niemiecki"... :|

Wouldn't it be way more user-friendly to show the names in their native language, like Deutsch, Română, English, Polski, etc?

Is there a reason this is still a thing, or is it just bad UX that nobody bothers to fix?

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[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This should be a universal symbol. Like a flag in the corner you can pretty safely assume might be for language. And then yeah each language listed in that language.

[–] withabeard@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

Which flag do we use for English?

I won't allow the stars and stripes

[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 1 points 16 minutes ago

Zimbabwe obviously 🇿🇲 ah fuck

[–] iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 35 minutes ago

I have seen at least one site where they used the English flag. Luckily I have watched the European Cup a few times and could recognize it.

[–] apelsin12@sopuli.xyz 1 points 48 minutes ago

Have different locales for uk and us

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 32 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

because most web developers are morons :/

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 22 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

It's more like "localization is hard and you have a week to add support for it"

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 10 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Yes, this one. i18n was a three day training course at my last workplace, because things that seem really obvious if you’re an Arabic speaker browsing a Russian website, aren’t at all visible to the original developer who has their environment set to English, develops in English, puts all the frontend labels in a “messages” config file to be sent for translation by another department in another country, and will likely never even see the end result.

[–] Samskara@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 hours ago

The translators often have zero context and don’t know what the UI even looks like or what the software does.

[–] raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Valid comment to some degree, but putting language options in the selected language is always dumber than providing them in the only world language.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 1 points 29 minutes ago

Nobody's arguing that it's the right way to do it, we're just saying that breaking out words like "dumb" after the fact from the comfort of our keyboards, over problems that aren't necessarily obvious at development time if you've not had i18n training, is kind of harsh.

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago

You don't speak dutch? 🤮

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 85 points 21 hours ago (7 children)

Perfectly comprehensible if you speak english, look:

[–] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk 18 points 18 hours ago

I think i've had a stroke

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[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 89 points 22 hours ago (11 children)

I've seen language switchers with translated language names that were sorted by the English name. So "Deutsch" was sorted under G.

[–] mle86@feddit.org 40 points 20 hours ago

Yeah that happened on Microsofts knowledgebase sites for years...

So annoying. But cant blame such a small company for not fixing that, they probably couldn't afford to fix it /s

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 9 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

Out of curiosity, would you put Deutsch before or after 日本語?

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[–] emeralddawn45@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 16 hours ago

Ive had multiple situations on websites or in games where i accidentally switched the language to like- japanese or something and then had to fumble around trying to switch it back. On websites at least you can translate to find the right option but i recently installed a game on my steamdeck and the input was all screwed up, and while trying to fix it i accidentally switched the language and then navigated away from the menu. Trying to get back to the right setting with broken input and not understanding anything wasnt fun.

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 18 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

If people really insist then at least have a flag emoji

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 16 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

No, flags for languages are a bad thing.

If you put a Swiss flag, what language would it be? (They speak 4 languages in Switzerland)
What flag would you use for English? The UK? The US?

More details here: https://localizejs.com/articles/why-using-flag-icons-can-confuse-your-users

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 1 points 56 minutes ago

I mean, if they insist on everything being in Dutch then at least include a flag. If you're going this deep on the UK obviously having the list in the native language is preferable.

The reason for the list above being all in Dutch might be because it's a list of countries, not a list of languages. (I speak some Dutch)

[–] Evotech@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You use both obviously

[–] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 11 points 10 hours ago

Like this?

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 English
🇺🇸 English (simplified)

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 14 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

that's all fine and dandy until you get a porch of geese angry at you for using the brazilian flag or vice versa

[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 1 points 58 minutes ago

They're going to hiss at me aren't they?

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