I was doing some keyword research and typed in “Singapore is” and Google suggested options like:
Singapore Is?
Goes to show that Google doesn’t really know us!
Not that I think of MySpace highly nowadays especially as a medium to market and make money but I visited the site today after a long time. I was stumped that it was mostly in Chinese and I just couldn’t find an easy way to change the language preference back to English (see screenshot below – click to enlarge). Since, I live in Singapore MySpace was probably trying to personalize my experience but instead ended up frustrating me.
If the knuckleheads at MySpace had done a little bit of research (like reading the Wikipedia entry), they would have known that English is the main language used in Singapore.
English is the main language of Singapore and has been heavily promoted as such since the country’s independence. The English used is primarily based on British English, with some American English influences. The use of English became widespread in Singapore after it was implemented as a first language medium in the education system, and English is the most common language in Singaporean literature. In school, children are required to learn English and one of the three other official languages. By law, all signs and official publications are required to be primarily in English, although they are occasionally translated versions into the other official languages.
In the screenshot above, did you see an easy way to change the language option to English? Neither did I. It turns out that there are three possible ways of changing MySpace back to English.
I went for the second option and moused over links to finally find the link to MySpace UK. So much pain just to change the language! Why can’t they have a big button that says “English” (in English)?
