# Selecting Localization Options

In most cases the first questions you will be asked concern the selection of localization options to be used both for the installation and for the installed system. The localization options consist of language, location and locales.

The language you choose will be used for the rest of the installation process, provided a translation of the different dialogs is available. If no valid translation is available for the selected language, the installer will default to English.

The selected geographic location (in most cases a country) will be used later in the installation process to select the correct time zone and a &debian; mirror appropriate for that country. Language and country together will help determine the default locale for your system and select the correct keyboard layout.

You will first be asked to select your preferred language. The language names are listed both in English (left side) and in the language itself (right side); the names on the right side are also shown in the proper script for the language. The list is sorted on the English names. At the top of the list is an extra option that allows you to select the C locale instead of a language. Choosing the C locale will result in the installation proceeding in English; the installed system will have no localization support as the `locales` package will not be installed.

Next you will be asked to select your geographic location. If you selected a language that is recognized as an official language for more than one country

In technical terms: where multiple locales exist for that language with differing country codes.

, you will be shown a list of only those countries. To select a country that is not in that list, choose other (the last option). You will then be presented with a list of continents; selecting a continent will lead to a list of relevant countries on that continent.

If the language has only one country associated with it, a list of countries will be displayed for the continent or region the country belongs to, with that country selected as the default. Use the &BTN-GOBACK; option to select countries on a different continent.

It is important to select the country where you live or where you are located as it determines the time zone that will be configured for the installed system.

If you selected a combination of language and country for which no locale is defined and there exist multiple locales for the language, then the installer will allow you to choose which of those locales you prefer as the default locale for the installed system

At medium and low priority you can always select your preferred locale from those available for the selected language (if there's more than one).

. In all other cases a default locale will be selected based on the selected language and country.

Any default locale selected as described in the previous paragraph will use UTF-8 as character encoding.

If you are installing at low priority, you will have the option of selecting additional locales, including so-called legacy locales

Legacy locales are locales which do not use UTF-8, but one of the older standards for character encoding such as ISO 8859-1 (used by West European languages) or EUC-JP (used by Japanese).

, to be generated for the installed system; if you do, you will be asked which of the selected locales should be the default for the installed system.