ph0b0s123 said:
One for the brits here. Does it ever annoy you that when you install a new piece of software that you only ever get the option of 'US English' rather than just English. Like it was invented by US. The best was today when installing Steam, it asked for my language preference. All the language options had helpful flags next to them. French flag for French, German flag next to German. Give you three guesses which flag was next to the only English option.....
Now I know I will get my back side handed to me as this is a mainly US populated forum. And I know that the US is the biggest market in the world with the largest population of English speakers, blah, blah.
But if it is that confusing for Americans to work out what language option they should pick if it has and English or British flag against it or is not denoted as 'US' English, just had done with it and add American or US as a language option... But then again I suppose if you put American that would probably mean Spanish now, right.....
I know what you mean with the flags, but I have to point out that in some cases there's a very good reason to specify 'US' English.
For instance, my keyboard layout is 'UK' 101/102 keys, whereas many keyboards are 'US' 101/102 keys.
If you set the default keyboard layout based on the language options, then it does matter.
Similarly, I have multiple spell-checkers installed on my computer.
Not only because I speak German & Dutch, but also because I have Australian English, British/UK English, and (the default), US English. At the same time.
If no distinction was made, the options for which language to use to check my spelling would be: English, English, English, German, Dutch.
Which is kind of confusing.
Now, why would you think this matters if the only option is 'US' English?
Well, if you're a programmer, it matters a lot.
Because it means you're assuming you wont ever have to deal with different dialects with unique spelling and cultural references that may vary from place to place.
You think saying 'US English' is bad?
Well would you think it better if it just said "English", but then someone makes a localised version for the UK and we now have "English" & "UK English?"
Explicitly stating that it's US English is actually acknowledging that there are other countries on the planet as well. (And it specifies that the cultural references and spelling in use are probably those of the US, rather than anywhere else.)
Using flags however is a bit of an irritating thing to do though, because it suggests something else. It gives far more of an impression that this is the country you're from if you speak this.
That's not a problem exclusive to English though;
I should point out that German is also spoken in Switzerland. (As is french & Italian), and Spanish is spoken in several countries as well.
Putting a German flag next to German language options makes a similar statement to using a US flag with English, except that English didn't originate in America, which makes the presumption seem a little more galling than it would otherwise be.
(Though I suppose using a mexican flag with Spanish would have the same implications.)
