Setting the default language in the Chrome extension

How To
1

Hi, I’m learning Catalan, but the Readlang Chrome extension always displays Spanish (to French), and I have to switch back to Catalan every time!

I’m French, and my PC is set to Spanish, but I’m learning Catalan: so how can I have Catalan as the default language when I open the extension?

I haven’t found the answer in this forum. Thank you for your help

2

My first thought is that you may be opening the extension on webpages which have their language set to French which would trigger the extension to think you are using the extension to read and learn French. Is this possible?

Also, I assume you want the first language to be Spanish and not French, right? Please confirm that the problem you are reporting is solely regarding the learning language changing, not the first language.

3

I only use the extension on Catalan pages since I’m currently learning it.

Catalan should be the default language instead of Spanish, because I have to switch every time and it’s annoying. That’s the only downside to the app for me; otherwise, it’s great!

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4

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5

I think this is happening because you are opening the extension in your Gmail which is set to Spanish, and so Readlang thinks the content of the page is Spanish even though individual emails may be in French.

Readlang shouldn’t insist on always auto-detecting and switching the learning language in this way. I’ll work on this.

6

Well done, Steve—that was the right diagnosis!
I changed the language in Gmail to Catalan (instead of Spanish), and the extension now opens in Catalan: no more issues for me :smiling_face:

7

But I think the vast majority of users learn only one new language at a time, so why have this auto-detection feature instead of simply giving users the option to lock the language they’re learning in the settings?

I saw in the forum that some people thought they’d lost their word lists because of this forced language change…

8

I for one use RL to read in 3 languages. The seamlessness or the app changing between e.g. websites in different languages is an important feature.

Readlang may get you adding new languages to your repertoire as well! :))

9

Sure, that must be an important feature, but it probably doesn’t apply to most people

I think it would be important to have the option to fix or not fix the single learned language in the settings :wink: