1. Fundamentals

1.1 Available language packs

A language pack contains all the texts that are used by default on a “blank” Moodle site: These include, for example, the menu items "Home" and “My courses,” or the automatic naming of buttons, e.g., “Add section,” and much more.

 In the English language pack, the above examples are called "Home", "My Courses" and "Add section", and in French « Accueil », « Mes cours » and « Ajouter une section » :

1.2 Language selection for the user interface 

All users can change the language of the Moodle interface. Depending on whether you’re logged in or not, it works slightly differently.

Not logged in:
For visitors who aren’t logged in, there’s a button in the header at the top right that lets you switch the language. On mobile devices (right), it may look a bit different:

Logged in:
After a successful login, the language selection moves into the user menu:

 You can test how it works in this course, because it’s available in three languages.

1.3 Language settings in the user profile

Besides the interface setting, there’s a user-specific preference you can set in your own settings: At https://moodle.thga.de/user/language.php or via User menu > Settings > Select language, you can set a preferred language.

If no language is enforced (see section 1.4), Moodle is displayed in the preferred language—in short: your personal language preference overrides the interface setting from section 1.2.

1.4 Automatic language detection

Moodle also tries to derive the default language from your browser settings. You might know this from websites that offer an automatic translation when the display language and your browser settings don’t match.

This feature is a global Moodle setting that can only be managed by administrators. But since it plays a role in the hierarchy of language settings, it’s mentioned here for completeness.

1.5 Course language settings

Of course, teachers should be able to decide the language of their own courses themselves. There’s a course setting for that, which people with editing permissions can find under Settings > Appearance > Force language.

A language enforced via the course setting overrides the user preference (section 1.3) and the interface setting (section 1.2).

1.6 How the different language settings relate

1. By default, Moodle is displayed in German.
2. The interface language setting (section 1.2) is available to every visitor—whether they have an account or not, and whether they’re logged in or not—so you can generally view the site in a language different from the default.
   If no course setting is applied, courses are also displayed in the selected language, as long as texts are available in that language.
3. The user preference (section 1.3) is basically a permanent version of the interface setting and overrides the default (here: DE). This means the Moodle interface is always shown in the user’s preferred language. Since the setting is user-specific, it only applies to logged-in users.
   This setting also generally applies to all courses you open, as long as texts exist in the target language and no course language is enforced.
4. At this point—if no interface language has been chosen manually and no user preference has been set—Moodle tries to determine a “matching” language via the browser settings.
5. A course language set by the teacher, for example, is not affected by any of the other options. It would be kind of pointless if an English course that is meant to be run exclusively in English for didactic reasons were suddenly displayed in German or French because of a user preference or interface setting.

The following figure is intended to illustrate the relationship: