Multilingual Help (or, why are my webpages always in the wrong language?)

[Zarathustra[H]]

Hey all,

So I have been dealing with this issue for years and it is kind of annoying. I was hoping someone might know where this comes from so I can solve it.

To start things off, I speak a few languages. English is my primary, but I am also fluent in Swedish, and used to be pretty decent in German, but I'm pretty rusty these days.

My problem is that random web pages (blog sites like wordpress, forums, google login pages, even the web management page for my MythTV DVR software running on my home server) often randomly switch from English to Swedish, on their own, unprompted.

Even the google login page is by default in Swedish, when I open a new incognito window... in a fresh linux VM... on my work computer... behind an enterprise NAT with over a thousand people behind the same public IP...

I speak and read Swedish, perfectly, but I don't necessarily want to use the translated version of every page I visit in Swedish. In my Android phone and tablet, as well as in my chrome browser settings I have US English as my primary language. Swedish is also added there (for spellchecking purposes when I do type in Swedish) but it is not listed as my primary language.

Is this due to some sort of false assumption that if I read Swedish without the translator, that I will automatically prefer everything in Swedish instead of English? Does anyone know where these random webpages are pulling my language "preferences" from, so I can go there and change it and prevent it from happening ever again?

It is really starting to get on my nerves.

Much appreciated,
Matt

 

[Deleted member 93354]

My problem is that random web pages (blog sites like wordpress, forums, google login pages, even the web management page for my MythTV DVR software running on my home server) often randomly switch from English to Swedish, on their own, unprompted.

Even the google login page is by default in Swedish, when I open a new incognito window... in a fresh linux VM... on my work computer... behind an enterprise NAT with over a thousand people behind the same public IP...


Matt

lol. Your enterprise NAT is probably similar to Verizon which randomly and frequently switches the exit point of the company to protect them from targeted hacks against the enterprise. As a result, one second you may show up in Africa, and the next Sweden. (No joke) When the server sees your exit point address, it provides pages in the countries native language.

This may help:

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-the-Default-Language-in-Google-Chrome

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

lol. Your enterprise NAT is probably similar to Verizon which randomly and frequently switches the exit point of the company to protect them from targeted hacks against the enterprise. As a result, one second you may show up in Africa, and the next Sweden. (No joke) When the server sees your exit point address, it provides pages in the countries native language.

This may help:

http://www.wikihow.com/Change-the-Default-Language-in-Google-Chrome

I am familiar with that settings dialogue, and I believe I have it set up properly. (that was the first thing I looked into)

English as my primary, and Swedish as my secondary.

Is there maybe a bug in how it handles languages? It says to order them based on preference, which I have.

 

[bds1904]

I've seen Google suggest languages to me based on what DNS server resolves to their page. This has happened to me even if the URL I am viewing is a regular Google.com address instead of the international pages.

This happened quite often when I had a server in France where my DNS would exit sometimes. I was using Google's DNS and whenever the client would resolve out of the French server (even though the clients IP address was US) I would get Google.com in French. Not google.fr just google.com in French.

Solution? Quit using google DNS servers.