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I live in Germany but don't speak (or read) German. Almost all internet sites completely ignore my browser's "preferred language" preference and serve me conten

I live in Germany but don't speak (or read) German. Almost all internet sites completely ignore my browser's "preferred language" preference and serve me content in German because I have a German IP address. So I use a VPN to pretend I'm in the UK, and get English language. I actually have to turn this off to watch streaming services, because they detect it too easily. The streaming services then cheerfully serve me English UI (because my account preference is for English) but German language content. I understand why, but this is such bullshit. If you want people to stop using VPN's, then stop assuming that their IP address has anything to do with their physical location, culture, language, bank account region, home address, telephone prefix or anything else.

forty 5y ago
I lived a bit in Sweden, and got the opposite frustration: everything was in English. Even people would see I'm not swedish and speak to me in English. How was I supposed to learn swedish without ever hearing any swedish? (I did have lessons, but it takes much more time to learn with lessons only)
- marcus_holmes 5y ago
  I'm having the same problem learning German in Berlin - everyone speaks English here and the slightest mispronunciation or "vie bitte?" and they switch to English. Which is appreciated - I'm a foreigner in their country and they're being incredibly hospitable to speak my language - but it makes practising German very difficult. Also, a Swedish distant relative of mine told me (decades ago) "We Swedes prefer to talk to foreigners in their own language, and keep Swedish as a private language for ourselves". I've never heard that said by anyone else, but it has always stuck with me as a cool idea, and the antithesis of the English ;)
kevincox 5y ago
> stop assuming that their IP address has anything to do with their physical location, culture, language, bank account region, home address, telephone prefix or anything else. The unfortunate truth is that analytics have show that more users have their browsers configured than an IP that doesn't "match" a language that they understand. Very unfortunately but is basically the common case for browser defaults on the internet.
- marcus_holmes 5y ago
  But this is circular reasoning. If every web dev ignores the browser setting and uses IP to determine language then the browser setting is irrelevant and no-one bothers setting it. So the browser setting is inaccurate for the majority of users and the web devs can cheerfully ignore it. I have started a one-man campaign of creating support tickets for all sites that ignore my browser setting. Join me!

forty 5y ago

I lived a bit in Sweden, and got the opposite frustration: everything was in English. Even people would see I'm not swedish and speak to me in English. How was I supposed to learn swedish without ever hearing any swedish? (I did have lessons, but it takes much more time to learn with lessons only)

marcus_holmes 5y ago
I'm having the same problem learning German in Berlin - everyone speaks English here and the slightest mispronunciation or "vie bitte?" and they switch to English. Which is appreciated - I'm a foreigner in their country and they're being incredibly hospitable to speak my language - but it makes practising German very difficult. Also, a Swedish distant relative of mine told me (decades ago) "We Swedes prefer to talk to foreigners in their own language, and keep Swedish as a private language for ourselves". I've never heard that said by anyone else, but it has always stuck with me as a cool idea, and the antithesis of the English ;)

kevincox 5y ago

> stop assuming that their IP address has anything to do with their physical location, culture, language, bank account region, home address, telephone prefix or anything else. The unfortunate truth is that analytics have show that more users have their browsers configured than an IP that doesn't "match" a language that they understand. Very unfortunately but is basically the common case for browser defaults on the internet.

marcus_holmes 5y ago
But this is circular reasoning. If every web dev ignores the browser setting and uses IP to determine language then the browser setting is irrelevant and no-one bothers setting it. So the browser setting is inaccurate for the majority of users and the web devs can cheerfully ignore it. I have started a one-man campaign of creating support tickets for all sites that ignore my browser setting. Join me!