Ubuntu – Switch command output language from native language to english

If you run the env command, you will be given the environment variables for language.

LANGUAGE=
LANG=en_CA.UTF-8

If you set those variables to English settings, with the export command, any command called after this will be in "English mode".

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

You can also put this also in the .bashrc or .profile file in your home directory, this will be in effect every time you open a command line terminal.

What I sometimes do is just paste the error-message in google + use the search term "translate launchpad" or "translations launchpad".

Dutch example: "Weet u zeker dat u alle programma's wilt afsluiten en de computer wilt herstarten?"

Then Google: "Weet u zeker dat u alle programma's wilt afsluiten en de computer wilt herstarten? translate launchpad"

Choose a page (this is sometimes a bit tricky), and with a bit of luck you get a page that looks like this:

Hope this helps.

Note that this only works for programs that use launchpad for translations. But most Ubuntu programs do, so it's worth trying.