The worst thing about the lack of internationalization of most Asian languages

I speak Korean, Japanese and Chinese (Mandarin), and while they each have their own strengths, I wanted to point out something that drives me absolutely crazy. <br><br>I want to preface this by pointing out that Korean is the absolute worst offender. Japanese and Chinese are much better in this regard.<br><br>Koreans have this very strange attitude that because most Koreans don’t speak English, every product, website and advertisement should be entirely in Korean, with no alternatives for people who don’t speak Korean. I have lived in Korea for several years, speak Korean relatively fluently and have even worked at Korean companies. Even so, I constantly run into services that I cannot use because there is no English option. <br><br>No, it’s not just that there’s no English customer service available or that the website/ advertisement isn’t translated into English. Often, literally every button, every input box and every menu is in Korean only. If you don’t speak Korean you basically cannot use the website. I have run into this with online shopping platforms, streaming services, banking apps and food delivery apps. <br><br>Japanese and Chinese are much better in this regard. China is a horrible offender against internationalization when it comes to things like payment services, social networks and major tech companies, but at least they usually let you switch to English. Not so in Korea, even with major tech companies like Naver and Kakao. <br><br>Edit: Right so the most common comment seems to be that South Korea is a small country that is almost entirely populated with Korean speakers, so why would Koreans need to translate anything? <br><br>The biggest flaw with this is that it ignores the giant flood of foreign residents and tourists that South Korea gets. If a country like South Korea wants to become a truly internationalized country, that includes accommodating foreigners with basic internationalization. <br><br>You don’t need to provide customer support in English. You don’t need to double the work hours of your employees who interact with customers just for English. <br><br>What you need to do is something like what happens on say, the Apple website, where you can choose the language you want in the footer of the page. <br><br>If you are a foreign company that operates in Korea, such as Starbucks, you should let South Koreans use your website in Korean, but you should also let them use it in English. <br><br>It’s not a lot of work to make your website bilingual, especially if you’re already a giant company with several language options available. Right now, Starbucks Korea is available entirely in Korean with no English option for tourists or expats. <br><br>I think it’s reasonable to expect every company with a website to add English as a language option and accommodate their international clients like that.