I am English (England)

This sort of thing really makes my blood boil. I mean, honestly!

Comments

[markbear]

Now you know what most Scots feel like. This sort of thing happens daily.

[AndyC]

Quite right, Dad, and nothing to stop them putting:

English (International)

The need for the USA to dominate without a thought for anyone else worries me.

[Ruby Riley]

This is interesting. Not to play devil's advocate, but I see they chose a national affiliation for several of the languages: English, French, Italian, German, etc. Could it be that they simply chose one country as their "standard" form of the language and are identifying it as such so they can program the language in their system using the official dictionary of a single country, rather than trying to have dozens of forms of English, French, German, etc.? I'm not sure it's an insult to any nationality as much as a way of telling users what official dictionary they're using. (Not that the English language will vary that much regionally, but then I really wouldn't know how much vocabulary goes into the iTunes site.) For some reason, though, they've felt the need to define which form of each language they're using, and they've done it with many languages, not just English. I agree that the U.S. has a horrifying tendency to want to dominate, and I'm over here feeling ashamed of pretty much everyone in government and big business, but in this particular case, I'm not sure I see the same thing. If they are going to define one country for each language, someone has to be picked for English, and I have a feeling they have more users over here than over there, so it would make sense to program for the masses.

[Ruby Riley]

Actually, now that I look at this again, I'm really curious as to what this means: Spanish (traditional sort). Where do they speak that? Spain? Mexico? Guatemala? Or is there maybe a country called "Traditional Sort"? Curious...

[AndyC]

You make some good points, Ruby. Thank you.

I suppose the defining factor for me, as a user of software, is that I feel like I am identifying with the country I click on. So when I click on English(USA) I am declaring myself to be a United States resident or citizen.

The word gets so small in internet terms, but I do identify myself as a British person, if not an English one.

I'm sure it costs the Aussies something to have to click on "Engish(USA)" as well.

Maybe they should just write "English" and be done with it?

[jac]

Now - if someone could show me how to make word default to English English I'd be sorted.