Change the display language to Chinese in Mac OS X
To become more accustomed to looking at Chinese characters, or even forcing yourself to have to learn more, then changing the default language on your computer is an excellent way to start – when you’re stuck looking at a list of Chinese commands there’s no option but to learn them.
In Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise Edition this is relatively easy to do, and it can be done in XP although not so easily so XP won’t be covered right now. By far the easiest operating system to change the display language in is Mac OS X, just follow these simple instructions:
1. Open the System Preferences Panel
2. Select the Language & Text settings
3. Drag your desired Chinese version to the top of the list (Traditional is picture below)
4. Log out and then back in again
5. Enjoy finding your way around in Chinese 
If you have any questions about this tip, or and ideas about other tips that are useful for learning Chinese please let us know below!
(Thanks Chris for reminding me to do this tip)
Related Content
Dave Flynn
Dave is a designer of websites, learner of Chinese and lover of technology. Originally from the UK , he's been living in Taiwan and learning Mandarin Chinese for the last four years. He founded and runs Chinese Hacks, a blog dedicated to effectively learning Chinese.
3 Comments
-
Actually, a really great way (sort of) for even users of Windows Vista/7 home/basic editions is Vistalizator:
You’ve got Chinese traditional/simplified as well as a plethora of other languages too.
Hope this helps
-
I did this once, but had to switch back… I was just not productive enough, what with all the dictionarizing and tangent-following that the UI language change sparked
-
Haha, I actually did that when I had a Mac, but it didn’t seem to help much. I changed things like facebook into Chinese too, but then I realized that I know how to do most regular tasks on my computer from memory anyway, so it didn’t help much.
Now I have a computer that I bought in China, and although the main settings are in English my programs like word, vlc media player, and so forth are in Chinese. Also using Chinese programs websites that I’m not familiar with in English seems more effective than changing language settings on ones that I already know.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
Archives
Official Partners
Friends of ChineseHacks
