+++
title = "Garmin's $850 smartwatch can’t render CJK text"
slug = "garmins-850-dollar-watch-cant-render-korean-text"
aliases = [
  "/posts/2020/my-850-dollar-watch-cant-render-korean-text"
]
date = "2020-01-11"
tags = ["programming", "languages", "rants"]
keywords = "garmin fenix language box support cjk arabic languages korean japanese chinese cant"
description = "My $850 watch can’t render CJK languages because Garmin assumes people living in one region only use 1 language."
+++

= Garmin's $850 smartwatch can’t render Korean text

I recently acquired a
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/641435/pn/010-02157-10[Garmin Fenix
6X], currently Garmin’s flagship model. While I did research beforehand,
I forgot that my phone was in Korean, and thus the notifications would
be in Korean… Silly me.

image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/andrewzah.com/posts/2020_01_11_garmin_fenix/garmin-notification.jpg[An example notification from my phone, which is in Korean.]

The 6 series is not cheap, starting at $600, with the 6X starting at
https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/641530/pn/010-02159-13[$750]. The solar editions go for $1,000 and $1,150. This specific variant
currently retails for $850, so when I found it on discount for $500 I hopped on that.

Garmin has an application called Express which has a `Language Files`
section, but it’s empty (and still is as of 2021-07-08).
When I spoke to customer support, they told me Korean wasn’t supported at this time.
I was directed to https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=bUNm3O11dH04aqGOFtBsz6[a page on
supported languages], and a page https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/[to share ideas]
but it errors on submission.

image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/andrewzah.com/posts/2020_01_11_garmin_fenix/express-utilities.png[A screenshot of the Utilities tab in the Tools & Content section of the Garmin Express application.]

I saw that Romanian (my mother tongue) was supported so I asked a friend
who works at Garmin about that, and he mentioned that they have an
office there. Cursory googling brings up a few
https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/bua11v/asian_language_support_for_fenix_5_plus_series/[reddit
threads] which mention different models are made for different regions.
So if I want Korean text, I have to find a Korean/Asian version of the
watch. And forget about receiving texts with Chinese or Japanese
characters.

So, is there no one at Garmin who uses their flagship watch, with their
phone set to a CJK language? (or any other nonsupported language that
uses a different script, for that matter)? Is there no one who receives
texts in Chinese, etc, from their friends? Even if the watch isn’t
localized to those languages, surely it should be possible to download a
relevant font file?

'''''

While this isn’t the end of the world (I like the fenix a lot!), is it
really so hard to imagine a person that lives in one region but prefers
using a different language?

The thing is that issues like these occur way more frequently than they
should.

*Example 1*

On Netflix, there’s a show called _Hilda_. If I visit Netflix
from the USA, the offered subtitle languages are: English, Spanish,
French, and Simplified & Traditional Chinese. If I visit Netflix from
Korea, now Korean subtitles (and audio!) are available. C’mon netflix… I
know there’s some technical reason for doing this, but that’s not really
relevant to me as an end user.

*Example 2*

I bought a western/North American region 3DS, and it only
supported 4 languages (not Korean or Japanese)… despite also being sold
in Japan and Korea. I ended up having to
https://3ds.hacks.guide/[jailbreak the 3ds] to change the
language/region and allow the Korean version of games to be played.

---

All too often, people make assumptions about regions and language,
if they do internationalization at all. This is understandable for open
source projects with limited resources, and less understandable for
large companies. Surely language support would help a product sell more?

Just give me a way to change the language!
// Copyright 2016-2024 Andrew Zah
