The language setting on the MATLAB UI can be changed due to various reasons.
Method 1:
To change the language back to English:
- Go to MATLAB Menu > Preferences > General > Desktop Language > Select the language for the desktop and error messages > English and then restart MATLAB.
- Note that the 'Desktop Language' box will only appear in your preferences menu if your computer locale is set to something other than English.
Method 2:
In Windows, MATLAB displays its UI elements according to the system language, defined as the "system locale" (i.e. if the computer's system locale is Chinese, then MATLAB will display a Chinese UI). MATLAB "decides" to translate the GUI from the default language, English, to the system language when it launches. MATLAB can be kept from translating to the system language if the user defines an environment variable that blocks the translation. The environment variable is called MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED and can be defined as follows:
- Click into "Control Panel". From there, select "System and Security", then select "System". In the left-hand menu bar, select "Advanced system settings". A small window with the title "System Properties" should pop up.
- Click the "Environment Variables…" button under the "Advanced" tab. Another window, entitled "Environment Variables", will display.
- Click the "New…" button under the "System variables" text box. In "Variable name", enter "MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED" and in "Variable value", enter "OFF". Click "OK" out of the "New System Variable", "Environment Variables", and "System Properties" window.
Setting MWLOCALE_TRANSLATED to "ON" will translate the UI to match the system locale; setting it to "OFF" will display the UI in the default language, English.
Method 3:
Check if the system locale & user locale are the same:
MATLAB reads the user locale and system locale on Windows platforms. When the user locale and system locale are not of the same values, you might observe garbled text or incorrectly displayed characters in MATLAB.
To resolve this issue:
- In MATLAB, verify that you have both the "user locale" and "system locale" set to the same settings:>> feature locale
- If they are not the same, please change them by following the instructions on the documentation page and see if it resolves the issue.
- Make sure that you do not have any corrupted fonts.
Method 4:
Refer to these instructions and revert back to the system's default font:
Method 5:
If none of the above resolve the issue, it may be due to an open java-based bug with the version that is shipped with MATLAB. This issue can be resolved by installing Java 8u271 and pointing MATLAB to this JVM.
Please install Java 8u271 and check this MATLAB Answers post to see how to point MATLAB to the right java environment and see if it resolves your issue.
