[littlecranky67]

So much this. I suspect the idea that a person speaks more than one language is absent in US silicon valley. Else I can't explain why youtube only lets you set one language. Heck, even google allows you to configure all spoken languages in your account, the very same google account you use for youtube. Yet youtube ignores it and has its own settings.

[tuetuopay]

I think the issue is not speaking more than one language, but not preferring your native language over the original content's language. This is a very American-English-centric view of the world, where content is made for your language and your demographic. Consumption from outside the US is the exception.

In the rest of the world, and especially in Europe, this is the norm, not the exception. On one hand there is the prevalence of US English media (hello hollywood), US english literature (esp. in tech); and on the other hand cross-consumption between EU countries is much more common.

Oh, and the content ends up being in English too, because that's how to reach many people. We don't want those to be translated, because we don't want a double translation. This is something that the US / Silicon Valley mind cannot comprehend.

[troupo]

> I suspect the idea that a person speaks more than one language is absent in US silicon valley.

Which has been baffling to me considering how many foreigners work at these companies.

[genocidicbunny]

I think it's more a matter of "why would they have their system language set to X if they speak Y? If they want Y, they should just set their system language to Y!"

It's the idea that the user has a preference for something, and it applies always and everywhere, even when it's not applicable.

[littlecranky67]

It should be absolutely clear, when i speak English and German, do not auto-translate any video title in those languages to the other. You wouldn't believe how bad the translations are, and how unwanted by me (the user). Worse when you speak a third or fourth language, and tend to watch videos. It gets messy.

[genocidicbunny]

Yeah I know, I watch videos in six different languages and the automatic translation are pretty universally bad.

[Denvercoder9]

> why would they have their system language set to X if they speak Y? If they want Y, they should just set their system language to Y!

If only they respected my system language. All my language settings are set to English, yet I routinely get autotranslated crap to my native language.

[genocidicbunny]

It was more of an example in how they pick up on _some_ signal about a users language preference and then arrogantly assume they're correct in their decision, and that it's the user's fault if they assumed wrong.

[int_19h]

This is actually something that foreigners working at Big Tech US companies should be able to understand very well, because English as a system language is often how software developers set things up for themselves regardless of their native language.

But they don't make those decisions. It's a UX thing, which means that in practice whoever is in charge of "driving up the numbers" is going to be making the decision; the engineers just get to cuss while implementing it.

[fifnir]

> I suspect the idea that a person speaks more than one language is absent in US silicon valley.

Exactly, it's like they've never left their own state levels of ignorance