Language automatically switches despite settings

[Steph_30]

Our school has been getting more and more questions about why the language settings get overwritten. e.g. One of my students in the English classes complained that everything they receive appears in Dutch, while my colleagues of the Dutch classes receive tasks in Vietnamese and Korean... It even happens in some of the quizzes.

We've checked the Canvas language settings, and these are all as they should be. We're thinking it might be an auto-translate in Chrome, but it appears not all of the students affected use this browser...

How might we solve this issue? Both students and colleagues are starting to get frustrated because this is interfering with their language lessons.

Many thanks!

[mzimmerman]

Hi Steph,

Just to confirm, are you seeing the language settings changed in the individual students' language preferences, as shown in https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/How-do-I-change-the-language-preference-in-my-user-... ?    Or are the students seeing the page in a different language despite their own language settings?  

[Steph_30]

We have told our students how to set their language preferences for Canvas. The course language settings should normally override these. However, students still get a translated version of the course. We don't really know what is causing it.

[Chris_Hofer]

Good morning, @Steph_30 ...

To expand upon what @mzimmerman has already posted, there are three different areas in Canvas where the language settings can be configured:

• Canvas administrator level: How do I set details for an account?
• Canvas course level: How do I change the language preference for a course?
• Canvas user account level: How do I change the language preference in my user account as an instructor? and How do I change the language preference in my user account as a student?

To confirm, have you checked all these areas?  Looking forward to hearing back from you soon.

[Steph_30]

Thanks for the quick replies!

This issue involves some of my colleagues and their students, so now I'm tracking down the people involved 😅

In one case, the teacher and student have just managed to identify the cause: apparently there was a translation program that the student often used, which accidentally also remained "on" whenever she used Canvas. Once it was switched off, the problem of automatic translations (i.e. in her mails to the teacher and quiz answers) was solved.

I'm still trying to get an answer from some of the other students who have reported issues, but I assume the problem there will be similar. I don't suppose their is a way to avoid such "external" translations in our language courses, other than just warning the students?

Many thanks!