Language Immersion and Computing
Sometime during the Fall 2003 semester, I had the idea that I could improve my language proficiency by setting my computer to Spanish. After some initial research, I discovered that Windows was wholly unlike the Mac OS (which can switch to different languages with minimal effort): I would have to buy a completely different copy of Windows XP in order to set it to Spanish---or any other language, for that matter. (In retrospect, I now realize that I might have been able to upgrade my existing copy of Windows and then install the language pack, but, technicalities aside, it still cost a relatively significant sum of money.) I subsequently discovered that the same was true for Microsoft Office.
Nevertheless, I did have the idea that I could download the Spanish-language version of Internet Explorer for free, which I proceeded to do. I somehow managed to convince Windows to let me delete the English-language version of IE and install the Spanish-language version instead. (It seems like a routine task, but apparently IE is a "Windows Component" that Ought Not To Be Touched.) Everything went fine until the next time that I ran Windows Update---which decided that a critical update was needed to reinstall the English-language version on my computer. Other than downloading and installing (with more success) the Spanish-language version of AIM and setting Yahoo! Mail to Spanish for a while, that was the end of my foray into the realm of multilingual computing.
Lately, however, I have once again become interested in the idea of multilingual computing. I had set Yahoo! Mail back to Spanish a few months ago, but the real stimulus came a few days ago when I uninstalled Norton SystemWorks and downloaded the trial version of Windows Live OneCare. I saw the list of languages available and, feeling adventurous, selected the Spanish-language version. This triggered a paradigm shift of sorts in my mind: I had never even considered installing non-English-language antivirus software, mostly since I had always bought it in a store; after all, the Wal-Mart here does not generally sell software in any language other than English. It was then that it really began to enter my mind just how many (often freeware) programs there are that are available in different languages. Here is a list of the programs that I have now downloaded in Spanish (or, in a few cases, in German):
- Lavasoft AdAware
- Mozilla Firefox
- Opera
- Windows Media Player (if Windows Update leaves it alone)
- Real Player
- Quicktime
- Adobe Reader
- Adobe Shockwave
- Yahoo! Messenger
- Windows Live Messenger (if Windows Update leaves it alone)
- Paint.NET
(I am sure that there are many other freeware programs online that are available in different languages; this is merely a list of the software that I myself use. The free version of Adobe Photoshop, for example, is available in more than just English, as is ICQ. Also: Looking at the list above, you might wonder why I did not switch to the Spanish-language versions of either Mozilla Firefox or Opera in 2003, instead of stubbornly clinging to IE and letting my dreams of multilingual computing fade away. The reason is that I was less sophisticated in my computer usage back then and had not yet begun to experiment with either Firefox or Opera. I still lived in the black-and-white world of IE vs. Netscape.)
Of course, many of the programs listed above are used only rarely, so their effect will be diminished somewhat, but the point is that I have them---and they are not in English. Every step taken towards living in a multilingual environment helps. And, perhaps most importantly of all, I paid nothing to do it; nor did I download any program that I was not already using.