It sounds only so-so as far as a 'fix' goes.
Huh? The problem was application strings were not in the desired language; after it, they were. More importantly, setting LANG did not work.
For example, how do the standard programs on your box perform with the same conditions? (ls for a non-existent file is an easy test)
That gives me english output as intended. I don't need other locales preinstalled; it even hampers my ability to communicate about error messages, menu items, widget text etc.
Which locales are installed on your box?
English as per setting at system install time.
What LANG/LANGUAGE environment variables do you have set to begin with?
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
Not really. In order to change documentation we want to be sure we're telling people the proper things, not work-arounds and kludges.
Not workarounds? Your are either kidding or opposing my efforts to be helpful on principle or you can't control your control attitude. A bad joke in each case.
ralf