How to Change Language Settings in YouTube

Suppose you go into your YouTube account and start browsing and suddenly all the labels are in a different language -- a language you can't read. How do you change it back? Easy. You find the label that says "current language", press "show languages" and choose a language you do read. Only, the label that says "current language" is also in the language that you can't read. So how do you recognize it?

This happened to me yesterday. I was researching a hub about national anthems. In the process, I played the Japanese national anthem over and over again. I did it often enough that Bow got seriously annoyed with me.

Afterwards, somehow all the labels on my YouTube account changed to Japanese. I don't know how or why it happened. I don't think I pressed the button to change languages. I have a theory about it, though. The AI program running YouTube must have figured that anyone who listens to the Japanese national anthem that many times in a row must be Japanese. Plus my name is "Aya" and that's a common Japanese name. So YouTube's automatic software jumped to the conclusion that I'd be much more comfortable reading Japanese from now on.

Anyway, that's one theory of how it could have happened.

It could happen to you, too, if you decide to listen to the national anthem of a country that is not your own. And just in case it does, I will tell you what to do in order to switch back to a language you can read.

While I don't read Japanese, I do know some Chinese characters, and a lot of Japanese writing uses Chinese characters. It's a completely different, unrelated language, mind you, and the characters are pronounced differently in Japanese, but it can definitely help to know some Chinese when trying to read Japanese.

If you are stuck in the Japanese language setting, scroll down to the very bottom of your YouTube screen and look in the left hand corner. To select a country or region, look at the part that says:

現在の地域: 全世界 地域を表示

The problem in my case was not the region. I had mine set to include the entire world (全世界).

The problem was the language setting, and it looked like this:

現在の言語: 日本語 言語を表示

Here's how I guess you would translate that:

"Current language (現在の言語): Japanese. 日本語 looks like the Chinese characters for Japanese language. Then, should you wish to change it, press the blue link that says "show language", which looks like this:

言語を表示

Once you press "show languages" things become easy, because all the available languages are self-labeled. That is, even though my language setting is still Japanese at this point, the label for English is in English. The label for Russian is in Russian. The label for Hindi is in Hindi, and so on and so forth. So from here on in, the process becomes self-explanatory.

In order to help any readers who got stuck in a language other than Japanese, I will provide photos of the "show languages" blue link in all the other languages available on YouTube.

1. Russian: Текущий язык: (current language) Pyccĸий (Russian) Отображать языки (show languages)
2. Mainland Chinese (simplified characters): 当前语言：(current language) 中文 (Chinese) 显示语言 (show languages)
3. Taiwan's Chinese (traditional characters) 目前語言： (current language) 中文 (Chinese) 顯示語言 (show languages)
4. Korean: 현재 언어: (current language) 한국어 (Korean) 언어 표시 (show languages)
5. Hindi: वर्तमान भाषा: (current language) हिन्दी (Hindi) भाषाएं दिखाएं (show languages)
   

If you are reading this hub, chances are you already understand English, and hence will not need the two types of English (US and UK) available on YouTube translated for you.

Above I listed the YouTube languages that use a different writing system from that of English. I think it should be much easier for a speaker of English to decipher other European languages that are written in Latin characters. However, in case there is any problem with that, here are the other languages:

1. Spanish (both of Spain and Latin America ): Idioma actual: (current language) Español (Spanish) Mostrar idiomas (show languages)
2. French: Langue actuelle (current language) Français (French) Afficher les langues (Display the languages)
3. German: Aktuelle Sprache: (current languages) Deutsch (German) Sprachen anzeigen (display languages)
   
4. Italian: Lingua attuale: (current language) Italiano (Italian) Mostra lingue (show languages)
5. Dutch: Huidige taal: (current language) Nederlands (Dutch) Talen weergeven (display languages)
6. Polish: Bieżący język: (current language) Polski (Polish) Pokaż języki (show languages)
7. Portuguese (of Portugal and Brazil) : Idioma actual: (current language) Português (Portuguese) Mostrar idiomas (Show languages)
8. Swedish:Nuvarande språk: (current language) Svenska (Swedish) Visa språk (show language)
   
9. Czech: Aktuální jazyk: (current language) Čeština (Czech) Zobrazit jazyky (display language)
   

Now you have all the information you need to change your YouTube account back to English in case it automatically switches to some other language. You can also use this information to switch to another language besides English, if that is your preference. Armed with this knowledge, you can feel free to listen to any national anthem in the world and know you will still be able to use your YouTube account afterwards.

(c) 2009 Aya Katz