Data Flow

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So I’ve been studying Hebrew daily for just over two years via classes, one-on-one tutoring, and – yes – using Duolingo as well. I am nowhere near fluent even for a 3 or 4 year old. But I can struggle through some pretty complex ideas (try explaining sui iuris Churches in English, even…). My Siri speaks Hebrew – but she doesn’t like my accent. I can sometimes get information out of her. That’s ok. Sadly – at least the last time I looked – Google Assistant does not speak Hebrew. That’s what makes the following all the more surprising to me.

So, a couple of weeks ago I changed the language settings on my Android Tablet to Hebrew. I tried it on my Mac, but it was far too confusing to navigate some things in another language and – naturally – I could do nothing at a decent speed. So I set it back. But I kinda navigate my tablet by rote anyway… “swipe tap swipe tap tap…” so I was comfortable making the change. I knew I could easily navigate back to the language setting “by feel”.

So the first thing that’s funny is that while all my Google Assistant routines and settings still function… since I’ve changed the name of my house from “Home” to “בית” I cannot see those routines on my tablet. I’ve not yet written any routines in Hebrew, but I might try.

NEway…

Things went well for a while. Then things started to get odd. Several applications on my table changed their languages automatically, but some did not. Among those that did: all the Google suite. Thus if I forward an email from my tablet all the notes “Forwarded from” etc… are all in Hebrew – even for the recipient. My Google Calendar 50/50 might be in Hebrew if I open it. But it’s the secular calendar – not the religious one. Oddly, my Mac has entirely stopped showing me the secular date (today is the 25th of Ayar.) But it’s in English. I don’t use the Apple Calendar funciton b/c I don’t have an iPhone.

All the media apps changed, including YouTube, YT Music, and Spotify. YouTube and YT Music now offer me much more Hebrew-language content even on my desktop and on my Google TV device. Spotify offers Hebrwe content nearly exclusively: and they cannot tell the difference between secular Israeli music and religious music – although they only give me Israeli religious music. But then I installed the Spotify app on my Mac – b/c I went “premium”. The App came preset to Hebrew and preset to bill me in Shekels! But, as you see, some parts are still in English. The Spotify website, though, is almost entirely in Hebrew – including support. This is not a setting I changed!

On the Tablet, the settings for my Telegram and my WhatsApp changed to Hebrew, but I can still type in English very well. However on other devices, WhatsApp is all in Hebrew as well. The website version displays from right to left. If I type in English, it displays properly, but it appears from right to left. Strangely, the WhatsApp app on my Mac is entirely unaffected. Support here is also in Hebrew. Telegram has not changed anywhere other than on the one tablet. Twitter is like WhatsApp: it’s in Hebrew everywhere and English appears from right to left as I type – but it reads correctly. Again, this is not a setting I changed in my Twitter account, the data just flowed that way and Twitter decided I wanted to be so. Twitter is especially interesting because it’s not linked to the same Google account which only has an English setting…

Anyway, suddenly nearly everything is a Hebrew lesson, right?