# Not sure how to juggle languages while setting up my francophone community

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-sure-how-to-juggle-languages-while-setting-up-my-francophone-community/390791
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** translation, content-localization
**Created:** [December 9, 2025, 3:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-sure-how-to-juggle-languages-while-setting-up-my-francophone-community/390791 "2025-12-09T15:31:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4

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### Author: ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2025, 4:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/not-sure-how-to-juggle-languages-while-setting-up-my-francophone-community/390791/4 "2025-12-09T16:01:20Z")

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I prefer searching for settings with “English” as my interface language because then I can search the names of the settings, which are always in English, and the descriptions at the same time. Sometimes the keyword I am looking for is only in one of them, and then a German description makes things more complicated.

> [@DEV: Ensure all site settings have a keyword entry](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dev-ensure-all-site-settings-have-a-keyword-entry/344861/10):
>
> A simple example is searching for “whisper.” As long as my interface language is English, I can find two settings because “whisper” is part of the name in one and mentioned in the description in the other:
> 
> > **_whispers_ allowed groups**  
> > Allow private communication within topics for members of specified groups.
> 
> > **create post for category and tag changes**  
> > Create a _whisper_ post when a topic’s category or tags change, requires whisper posts to be enabled.
> 
> I cannot do the same while my interface is in German. I can use “whisper” to find the first one and “flüster” to find the second one. But there is no way to find both.

Apart from searching settings, I try to use the interface in German. That helps with improving the translations and noticing bugs that occur only when your interface language is not English.

It’s also helpful because some things, like the “about the category” topics or placeholders you use in messages sent by the automation plugin, usually use the interface language you used at that time. Also, site texts you customize default to your interface language.

So, in general, I use the default locale of my forum (German) also as my interface locale, but I change it to find settings. I have a theme component that adds a toggle button to my sidebar so I can change my interface language with one click.

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