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Well, there is a huge debate going on with the "best way to show users language selection", but no answer.

  1. Dropdown box (language shows in native language)
  2. Dropdown box of country flags (optionally alt tags for language)
  3. Country flags
  4. Language links

All seem to suck. 2 and 3 suffering from "Country != Language", 1 and 4 suffering from "Cognitively, selecting a word out of a list of words sucks." So what should I do?

While this question may seem subjective, it is possible to answer this question in a non-subjective way. Such as if Flex or some Flex component exists as a "Language Chooser" such as that found on a mobile device.

cbroughton
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  • Flags are easiest - No, a country is not a language but that's a stupid reason to argue against it, since languages originate in countries. If I see a German or French flag, I know the language is German or French. Pretty simple - Personally, I like it for English because I know whether the site/app I'm on supports UK English or American. – SQLiteNoob Nov 13 '11 at 03:07
  • Problem: What about India and ... countries like THAT? – cbroughton Nov 13 '11 at 03:08
  • Why is THAT an issue? They speak Hindi as an official language. – SQLiteNoob Nov 13 '11 at 03:14
  • When anyone sees a Canada flag, they expect English and Canada has two official languages. But Quebec also has a flag. There has to be a person in Canada who also speaks every other language in the world - But I wouldn't expect to see Chinese or Arabic after clicking a Canadian flag and it's unreasonable to do so. – SQLiteNoob Nov 13 '11 at 03:17
  • Indian has over twenty official languages apparently. And as Hindi and Arabic would both be choices (I didn't think Hindi was a spoken language, but EngLing.SE told me it was.) wouldn't they both have the same flag(s) or the flag(s) get mixed up? – cbroughton Nov 13 '11 at 03:17
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    The overwhelmingly popular language of India is Hindi (5X more than the next common language) and English is used for their political institutions (more complex than that, so take this as overly brief) Which would you expect when you click on a flag of India? Canada has speakers of 30-40 (at least) languages, but as I said earlier, it would be unreasonable to expect anything but English or, depending on context, French (ie, Frenchlanguageonly.com with flags that represent dialects). Flags are easily recognizable and generally easy to understand and interpret. – SQLiteNoob Nov 13 '11 at 03:47
  • Fair enough. Good points sir. – cbroughton Nov 13 '11 at 03:50
  • If you are supporting every language in the world or all 15 of India's official languages, then choose text or regional flags. But I mean, Bengali is spoken in India by 8% of the people and it's an official language - but it's also the language of Bangladesh so a flag for Bangladesh would be equally suitable imho. – SQLiteNoob Nov 13 '11 at 03:52
  • If you post it as an answer I'd be glad to accept it. (flags, for the reasons you have stated in these comments.) – cbroughton Nov 14 '11 at 00:42

2 Answers2

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Language showed in native language and in English after this

Example: "Francais (French)".

There are several reasons for doing this: your current font may not support the display of the language name OR you may not be able to differentiate between CJK symbols while testing.

sorin
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  • You make a good point that nobody else does about CJK symbols, my PC only has Cyrillic (Russian), Japanese, and English (duh) characters; but would this be in a displaylist of some sort, such as a ComboBox or what? How would one integrate it well into a login screen? (any examples?) – cbroughton Nov 11 '11 at 14:40
  • If the user can select only one language a ComboBox (or HTML alternative) will be just fine. If it is possible to select more than one or order the preferences, the Apple language selection is a good example. – sorin Nov 11 '11 at 15:00
  • Unfortunately yes, they will have to be able to set a language preference in order or priority or such, as many user-submitted games or beta projects might only be available in certain languages. (This is a Flex powered website pretty much.) – cbroughton Nov 11 '11 at 15:10
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Flags are easiest - Also they are easily recognizable and generally easy to understand and interpret. Symbols are always more eye-catching.

No, a country is not a language but that's a poor reason to argue against it, since languages originate in countries. If I see a German or French flag, I know the language is German or French. Pretty simple - Personally, I like it for English because I know whether the site/app I'm on supports UK English or American.

When anyone sees a Canada flag, they expect English and Canada has two official languages. But Quebec also has a flag. There has to be a person in Canada who also speaks every other language in the world - But I wouldn't expect to see Chinese or Arabic after clicking a Canadian flag and it's unreasonable to do so.

The overwhelmingly popular language of India is Hindi (5X more than the next common language) and English is used for their political institutions (more complex than that, so take this as overly brief) Which would you expect when you click on a flag of India? Canada has speakers of 30-40 (at least) languages, but as I said earlier, it would be unreasonable to expect anything but English or, depending on context, French (ie, FrenchLanguageOnly.com with flags that represent dialects). Flags are easily recognizable and generally easy to understand and interpret.

If you are supporting every language in the world or all 15 of India's official languages, then choose text or regional flags. But I mean, Bengali is spoken in India by 8% of the people and it's an official language - but it's also the language of Bangladesh so a flag for Bangladesh would be equally suitable imho.

SQLiteNoob
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