this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2025

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358

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

submitted 22 hours ago by beerclue@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

104 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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[–] fubarx@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago (13 children)

In an international context, not everybody speaks English. A Japanese customer wants to switch to French. Which language should the language picker be in?

Alternative is to put the flag of each language next to the name in the picker. That way, whoever doesn't read the current language can at least pick by icon.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 1 points 12 hours ago

A Japanese customer wants to switch to French. Which language should the language picker be in?

日本語。

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

The language selectors in the system I have built are either English or native. And I can tell you, implementing and verifying over 100 languages in their native writing is quite a challenge.

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 34 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (1 children)

The reality is, it varies.

I just opened the language picker on the first site I had in my browser tabs (happened to be Epic games) and they display the language list using native names for the target language, rather than current language (screenshot attached)

I agree it's much better to do it this way.

As a developer, why it doesn't happen sometimes could just be by accident. If you intentionally set out to localise a site and put all text and menu elements into localisation files to be translated, then the language names are going to end up getting translated too. It takes conscious thought and UX design to realise that it's better for accessibility if that single part of the site is actually just static text, regardless of what language is selected.

And before anyone suggests using country flags in your language picker as a cool solution - please don't, because that sucks too. There isn't a 1:1 relationship between countries and languages and so the flag approach is a flawed compromise at best, and actually insulting at worst.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah okay but imagine clicking the option with an Israeli flag and suddenly the website is in Arabic. That's too funny to pass up.

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[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 19 hours ago

Because they didn't think it through.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 14 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

Just bad UX design. Typically this should include flags or the language's name in the language if they really did a good job.

[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

What flag is for English? What flag is for Portuguese? What about Austria, do they got a language? What do we put under Chinese flag, Mandarin? Where do Cantonese go? Oh, what about Belarusian? There are at least three options, and two could get you in jail, choose carefully.

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[–] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 22 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Flags don't represent languages and therefore shouldn't be used to represent languages.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today -1 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

Typically they're used for the counties where the language originated.

UK for English France for French Japan for Japanese Spain for Spanish Russia for Russian Portugal for Portuguese

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[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 4 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

What flag do you use for english ?

[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 7 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Use the UK flag if the site is in English and use the American flag if it's in Webster English. Seems pretty evident to me.

[–] eRac@lemmings.world 5 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

A split combo of the two is pretty common.

[–] Nalivai@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 hours ago

English is an official language in 53 countries, and primary language in 29. You can attempt to split it, but that wouldn't be very pleasant picture.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 0 points 10 hours ago

UK.

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[–] blaue_Fledermaus@mstdn.io 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Flags don't make sense.
Otherwise this is completely valid:

( ) German 🇧🇷
( ) Italian 🇧🇷
( ) Japanese 🇧🇷

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 1 points 10 hours ago (3 children)

Tell me... Where did, roughly speaking, German originate? Germany, perhaps?

Does Germany have a flag?

Not sure why this is some sort of hidden secret code.

[–] blaue_Fledermaus@mstdn.io 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

There are some German dialects that only survive (barely) in Brazil.

And the German language is much older than Germany.

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[–] curlywurly@lemmy.world 16 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

this is a region switcher, rather than a language switcher (the website may of course be conflating the two, though)

[–] beerclue@lemmy.world 14 points 21 hours ago

You are right, it is a region switcher. I didn't realize that, maybe because the "change region" button was in a language I didn't know? :)

[–] alaphic@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Be that as it may, I honestly don't see what difference that would make in regards to OP's point... While it is spmewhat rather ironic, their argument over choice of word(s) in this particular situation is - imo, anyway- not one of semantics, but more of localization.

Either way, whether this is a language selector or region switcher (or any variation on such a theme for that matter), I believe the point OP was - correctly, if you ask me - making is: Whenever a UX/UI element is needed to prompt for proper display language, each language should be displayed however it appears in its native tongue as opposed to how it appears in whatever language is currently selected.

As an added bonus, this also solves the problem of a user inadvertently changing the language (or forgetting to lock their workstation when leaving briefly and returning to find it changed to "help them remember to lock their station when not in active use" allegedly... not that that's happened to anyone I know or anything) and being unable to change it back due to not knowing how to spell "English" in Japanese, for example.

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[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 0 points 10 hours ago

Do I speak Ierland-ish? Mabey not, could be weird, but I got the one that must be Italian, and then I can pick English from there. Except I glossed over Groot-Brit.... because Groot couldn't be what I was looking for.

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