Bitcoin Forum

how can i change the language to english in the official bitcoin client?

also how does the client attempt to detect my language? my windows7 is english.

thanks!

Create a file named english.bat (for example) with this text in it:
set LANG=en_US.UTF-8
bitcoin-qt.exe

Then you can use this file to start the client.
Not very user friendly, but it works.

So it can be a good feature request :)
- Add an option to change language from the settings.

yes, I'd love to be able to change the client language!

I would like it too, it is reason why i am still using 0.4 version.

The question you should be asking, is why your OS is configured for a non-English language...

True. I live in Korea, use Korean windows, and have never had Bitcoin speak Korean to me.

Because he is sharing the computer with other members of his family and they don't speak english?

I am not sure if Luke meant this or not but, I was responding to the fact that Bitcoin should be in English regardless. Even on my Korean windows it shows English. So wtf@that

Nobody has written a Korean translation.  If/when somebody does (join https://www.transifex.net/projects/p/bitcoin/ if you want to help) you'd get the Korean translation.

An option to change the language in the GUI is a great idea.  Somebody should do that....

On the 0.6 windows version - the client installed in hebrew although the Windows is english.
Is there a way to change it to english or force it to install in english without making batch files, removing languages
from the OS etc ?

I agree, somebody should. 

Open the bitcoin.conf file and add

That should do it. No need for a new install, only a client restart. All languages get installed, so you have them all there to change as you wish.

I've started this related thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76897.0) for discussion of ways to solve this problem going forward.

As for the current situation: The default language is determined by the dates format. Many people have their OS with an English interface but use the local format for dates and stuff. (eg in Israel we use d/m/y rather than m/d/y). So this means that many people will encounter an unwanted translation; and that resolving it doesn't require "removing languages", just setting the defined format language to US (and the formats themselves can be customized for this language to match the local style).

Alternatively, you can use psy's suggestion of editing bitcoin.conf (haven't tested this), or simply add -lang=en_US to the target of whatever shortcut you are using to launch Bitcoin.

The english language in Bitcoin uses the code en only. If you try to tell Bitcoin to load en_US it will probably not work as it won't recognize the language you're asking it to load.

Just a side note to your remark of you not having tested my suggestion: Every flag that you can set on the command line to start the client will work inside the bitcoin.conf file. Just don't forget that the flags inside the conf file don't use the hiphen :P

It definitely does work and it's what I'm using.

Well, pt doesn't work because the language is named pt_BR, hence my mistake. Anyway, the _US should be redundant in your case :)

Taken from the bitcoin_en.ts file

Language selection would be very nice.