Like a lot of open-source programs, R comes with the highly annoying “feature” of being extremely localized. Not only does it default to your system’s language, but also it makes it a pain in the neck to manage to change the language: using the “GUI preferences” menu (or whatever it is in your locale, haha ^^) to change the language doesn’t even seem work… (you need to restart R for a language change to apply, but when you restart your custom configuration doesn’t get loaded – awesome)
But, well, someone asked the question on an R mailing list hosted by the University of Newcastle, Australia, and the solution is to run R with the added command line parameter LANGUAGE=en (edit the shortcut to R and add this stuff at the end).
On a side note, the solutioner points out a very common mistake made by localizers:
“Apparently some users want Windows in their native language, but not R.”
Dear localizers, you appear to forget or ignore the fact that some people run your software on their work computer, where they don’t have the choice of their OS nor of their language. You also seem to ignore that in some countries it’s pretty hard to grab a legal non-local copy of Windows. So please, don’t make it hard for users to change your program’s language back to normal (i.e. English). How would you like it if I forced you to read a Google-translated version of this notepad in your local language, hm?
Update (2012-01-16): as mentioned in the comments, an alternative, more radical solution is simply to delete the share/locale folder. It contains translation files, and if R can’t find them it will fall back to English.
Right click the shortcut icon in your desktop. Select Shortcut tab if it is not the default selection. Type LANGUAGE=en after the texts in Target field. Apply and restart R.
Yeah I guess I could have been more accurate in the instructions. Thanks for the clarification
Also, what you describe works just as well with start menu shortcuts.
Hey guys,
I am pretty new to R, am trying to change the language from Germany to English. I come across your comments. I am trying to apply but unfortunately not successful,
the text in my target box reads,
C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe”
I have tried to add LANGUAGE=en as below but when I click apply am getting a message “the name in the text box is not valid”
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe\\LANGUAGE=en”
Please advice me what should I do
I think you’ll want to use something like:
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe" LANGUAGE=en(or maybe:)
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe LANGUAGE=en"Hi David,
Thank you very much for your time. I have tried the two option but still it is not working!
Hi,
And I won’t have access to a Win 7 computer until the end of July to check that out…
Are you still getting the same error message? Are you sure you didn’t accidentally mess with the path (ie, does “C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe” exist”)? I’m doing this on Win XP 32 bits, so I don’t know what changes there might be in Win 7 (?) 64 bits.
No, the error message is different now, I have tried this path,
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe” LANGUAGE = “en” and i didn’t get the same error message. But after restarting my computer nad start R, am getting error message ” argument LANGUAGE ignored” and then “argument en ignored” and after that R opens but the language is not changed. I will keep on looking for solution and i will give you the feedback.
Well, if you don’t mind a not too clean solution (yet actually, quite clean since it frees some HD space
), you can just delete the whole 
share/localefolder. That’s cheating, but that’s definitely working.Hey David, Thank you very much again for your time. I decided to uninstall the 64bit and install 32bit on a win 7 machine, fortunately it is working well now! Thanks!
thanks a lot
Using
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.11.1-x64\bin\Rgui.exe” LANGUAGE=en
as the shortcut target worked here, adding LANGUAGE=en to Rconsole as suggested in the R FAQ didn’t do the trick. If you only want R in English, you can unselect the translations on install. The problem is that some plugins (e.g. Rcmdr) will still be translated to your locale.
They really should make the GUI preference work, it’s there…
Guys thank you SO much. I am working in a Japanese company in the middle of nowhere…I know some japanese but why should I go crazy over some lazy localiser dumbass? Put an option easy to find in the dropdown menus. That`s it.
Cheers
hi guys…
how to change RGui language from french to english…? I am trouble to do this according to the ideas given above…
How can I don this.
I have the following path:
“C:\Documents and Settings\shsajjad\Mes documents\R\R-2.13.0\bin\R.exe”
thanks
sajjad
Hi Sajjad,
I guess the following should work then:
“C:\Documents and Settings\shsajjad\Mes documents\R\R-2.13.0\bin\R.exe” LANGUAGE=en
I am just a beginner to R. I have become upset after seeing the menu in Japanese. I use a 64bit WIndows 7 PC. I followed the instruction available at this page. I tried the following command when the R was not running.
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.13.1\bin\x64\Rgui.exe” LANGUAGE=en
It instantly opened the GUI with English menus. Thanks to this site and the contributors.
and was able to change
Thank you all for the post. Dear localizer, please understand, there are some programs, whose
keywords are de factor standard and should not be translated in any language. Thanks!
Always nice to find answers to our problems! I run R on Windows 7 64 bit (French) and tried as suggested to delete the share/locale folder, but some error messages were still in French after that. Adding LANGUAGE=en worked well
“C:\Program Files\R\R-2.13.2\bin\x64\Rgui.exe” LANGUAGE=en
Thanks a lot!
The below solution is the best one for users who use R through Eclipse.
Thanks very much!
***David Dernoncourt says
Well, if you don’t mind a not too clean solution (yet actually, quite clean since it frees some HD space
), you can just delete the whole share/locale folder. That’s cheating, but that’s definitely working. 
****
Wow, I didn’t even know there was a way to use R with Eclipse. At the moment I usually use either RStudio or R Analytic Flow.
Hi,
I tried this and it works well, until now.
Go to:
C:\Program Files\R\R-2.14.1\share\local
and delete your language folder, and then run R.
Omar