Languages
Which language the app speaks to you in, which language the AI writes in, and why those stop being the same thing as soon as you want them to.
There are two languages in play. The one the interface is in, and the one the AI writes your cards, papers, lectures and stations in. At the bottom they are one setting on your account, so most people never meet the difference. Above that they part company: you can read the app in English and have a subject generated in Portuguese.
Two things, one setting#
Language in the account menu sets both. Change it and the menus, buttons and labels change, and so does everything the AI writes from then on.
That is the whole story for a one-language user. If you never open another language control, both halves stay wherever your account is.
The moment you set a language on a subject or on a board, only the second half moves. A board written in Portuguese does not turn your menus Portuguese, and there is no setting that does. The interface follows the account and nothing else.
The ladder#
What the AI writes in is decided by three levels, strongest first:
| Level | Where you set it | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Board | The board's title tile, beside its section and column count | That one board |
| Subject | The subject dashboard header, on the line with its board and part counts | Every board in that subject |
| Account | Language in the account menu | Everything else, and the interface |
Each of those is the same quiet pill. It wears the language actually in force, and its menu carries a row saying where that came from — Same as your account · English (AU) on a subject, Same as subject · Português (BR) on a board. Picking that row again clears the setting.
Only choices you make are stored. Absent means inherit: a board with no language of its own reads its subject's, and a subject with none reads your account's. Nothing is copied down, so changing your account language later moves every board that never disagreed with it, and leaves the ones that did alone.
The answer is worked out at the moment you press a generate button, not when the board was made. Two consequences worth knowing:
- Setting a language governs what is written from now on. Notes already on the board stay exactly as they are, and so do the cards, papers and lectures already generated from them. Nothing is rewritten behind you.
- You can set it before or after anything exists. A board you filled in January and pinned to Portuguese in March starts producing Portuguese in March.
Qual é a margem de excisão para um melanoma com Breslow de 1,5 mm?
1–2 cm, até a fáscia.
All 5 cards
Which English you get, and why nobody asked#
Four rows are on offer: English (AU), English (UK), English (US) and Português (BR). Each is named in its own language, because a language picker is read by somebody who may not read the one currently on screen.
Nobody is asked which English they want. Your browser already says, so
en-US gets American spelling and every other English gets British — en-GB,
en-NZ, en-IE, en-ZA, en-CA and a bare en all land on the British catalogue.
en-CA is the deliberate coin flip: Canadian English writes colour but
organize, so it gets British and a picker to disagree with.
English (AU) and English (UK) read identically today; they are one catalogue under two names, so pick whichever you would rather see selected.
This reaches the AI too. If you never touch the setting, what the AI writes uses British spelling — an unset language is deliberately told British, because a model told nothing writes American.
Portuguese#
Português (BR) is not a spelling variant of the English catalogue the way English (US) is. It is a full translation: every string in the interface, not just the words that differ.
It works the same way on the generation side, with one addition. The instruction the models get says to write in Portuguese even when the notes and the request are in English — without that, a model handed English notes answers in English however it was asked. So an English board pinned to Portuguese really does produce Portuguese cards, papers, lectures and stations.
Portuguese from Portugal is not offered yet. It would be a much larger job than the American overlay — ecrã against tela is vocabulary, not spelling — so a pt-PT browser is given the Brazilian catalogue.
Translating#
There is no convert-in-place. Nothing anywhere turns an existing board into another language. Setting the board's language pill governs the next generation and touches nothing already written.
A board in another language is a copy.
Open the move-or-copy control on the board (it is on the board's own bar, and on its row in the subject index), choose Copy, and set Write it in to the language you want. Picking a language other than the original's is asking for a translation — there is no separate switch — and the button changes to Translate and copy here. The copy is named after the language for you ("Melanoma — Português (BR)") unless you type a name of your own, and its sections are rewritten in batches while you watch.
The original is never touched. It keeps its language, its notes and everything generated from it.
| Breslow | Margem de excisão |
|---|---|
| In situ | 5 mm |
| ≤ 1 mm | 1 cm |
| 1–2 mm | 1–2 cm |
| > 2 mm | 2 cm |
- T pela espessura de Breslow e pela ulceração
- N pelo número de linfonodos acometidos
- M pelo sítio da metástase e pela LDH
- Ulceração — sobe o subestádio T
- Mitoses ≥ 1/mm² pesam nas lesões finas
- Regressão extensa muda a conversa sobre estadiamento
Oferecido a partir de T1b. Abaixo disso, discutido e não oferecido.
The copy starts empty of everything except notes. Your deck, your papers, your lectures, your stations and your Must not miss core are all linked to the board they were generated from, so they stay with the original — generate fresh ones on the copy. That is not a limitation being worked around; it is why a copy is the answer and an in-place conversion is not. A translated deck would be a translation of a card, scheduled against a review history that belongs to another board.
The one thing that is translated in place is a selection. Highlight text in a section, and Translate is on the toolbar that appears, alongside explain and rewrite. That rewrites the words you selected and nothing else.
The oral examiner#
The viva reads the same ladder, which is why an examiner never turns up speaking the wrong language for the board in front of it.
In a live viva the examiner speaks the board's language, and the transcription running underneath is told to expect it — that transcript is what the attempt is marked on, so getting it wrong costs marks rather than just looking odd. In both the live and the recorded flow, the marking, the criteria and the spoken feedback are written in the board's language.
Your account language does not come into it. Reading the app in English and sitting a Portuguese viva on a Portuguese board is the expected combination, not a corner case.