Who can use this feature?
Available on:
All Culture Amp subscriptions
Understanding Language Codes
A language code is a two-letter identifier (e.g., fr for French, pt-BR for Brazilian Portuguese) that sets an employee’s preferred language in their profile for the general Culture Amp User Interface.
Adding language codes to employee profiles stores each person’s language preference. Whether they see Culture Amp in that language depends on which languages are supported and configured in each part of the platform (for example, the general User Interface (UI), Engagement surveys or Performance review cycles).
By default, all employees can use English (US). If your organization works in multiple languages, adding codes will help tailor the experience. For details on which languages are fully or partially supported, see our Supported Languages article.
Setting the Preferred Language Field at Account Level
To enable additional languages in the general UI, you first need them enabled on your account, then assigned to employee profiles.
Step 1: Request Languages to Be Activated
Contact the Culture Amp Support Team and request activation of your preferred languages at the account level.
Open a support conversation with Culture Amp.
Provide the required language codes
The Product Support Team will activate those languages for your account.
Step 2: Add Language Codes to Employee Profiles
Next, assign the preferred languages to your individual employee profiles. This tells the system which language to use for each person where that language is supported.
Option A: Update via HRIS Integration
Add or update your existing Language field in your HRIS
Populate it with the correct language codes.
Sync the data to Culture Amp.
Option B: Update via CSV Upload
Go to Settings > Users > Export Users.
In the exported CSV file, add or locate a column titled Language.
Enter the appropriate language code for each employee under Language.
Save and re-upload the file as a partial import.
Note: Ensure the column in your file is exactly titled Language. Any other variation will prevent it from mapping correctly to the Preferred language field in the user profile.
Tip: If all employees can use US English, you can leave the Language column blank for all users. Their default language will be set to English (US).
After Uploading
Once your file is uploaded, confirm the update:
Go to Settings > Users and click on a user to open their profile.
Under the profile's Personal Information section, confirm the Preferred language field
Setting Languages at the Module Level
Adding a language to an employee's profile sets their preference for the general UI, but it doesn’t automatically enable that language at the module level. Each has its own configuration.
Engagement: For Engagement, languages are configured per survey.
Account Defaults: If your account has a "fixed stack" of languages, these automatically appear as available languages in your surveys.
Custom Sets: If Support previously configured a custom set for a specific survey, that survey retains its unique list and is not overwritten by account-level changes.
Manual Adjustments: Support can adjust languages for individual surveys upon request.
See How to Set Up a Multilingual Engagement Survey for key steps.
Performance: In contrast, Performance review cycles manage their own language lists independently of account settings.
You select supported languages during the cycle configuration.
Employees see the cycle in their Preferred Language only if that language was explicitly included in that specific cycle.
See How to Set Up a Multilingual Performance Review Cycle for full steps.
Supported Language Codes
Below are the supported language codes you can use in your employee data file.
Note: You must use the exact System Code listed in the table below. Do not use variations. Using any code not listed here will result in a sync error or an unassigned language.
Tier 1 and Tier 2 Languages
These languages are officially supported and provide the best user experience.
Language (in English) | Native Language | Required System Code |
English (US English) | English | en |
English (UK English) | English | en-GB |
Arabic | العربية | ar |
Bulgarian | български | bg |
Simplified Chinese | 简体中文 | zh |
Traditional Chinese | 繁体中文 | zh-TW |
Czech | čeština | cs |
Danish | dansk | da |
Dutch | Nederlands | nl |
Estonian | Eesti keel | et |
Finnish | Suomi | fi |
French | français | fr |
French Canadian | français canadien | fr-CA |
French Creole | fransè ayisyen | ht |
German | Deutsch | de |
Greek | ελληνικά | el |
Hebrew | עִברִית | he |
Hindi | हिंदी | hi |
Hungarian | Magyar | hu |
Indonesian | Bahasa Indonesia | id |
Italian | italiano | it |
Japanese | 日本語 | ja |
Khmer | ភាសាខ្មែរ | km-KH |
Korean | 한국의 | ko |
Latvian | Latviešu | lv |
Lithuanian | Lietuvių | lt |
Malay | Bahasa Melayu | ms |
Maori | Te reo Maori | mi |
Norwegian | Norsk | no |
Polish | Język Polski | pl |
Portuguese | Português | pt |
Brazilian Portuguese | Português brasileiro | pt-BR |
Romanian | Limba Română | ro |
Russian | русский | ru |
Serbian | српски | sr |
Sinhala | සිංහල | si-LK |
Slovak | Slovenčina | sk |
Spanish | Español | es |
Latin American Spanish | Español latinoamericano | es-419 |
Swedish | Svenska | sv |
Filipino | Tagalog | tl |
Tamil | தமிழ் | ta-LK |
Thai | ไทย | th |
Turkish | Türkçe | tr |
Ukrainian | Українська | uk |
Vietnamese | Việt | vi |
Welsh | Cymraeg | cy |
Tier 3 Languages (Not Officially Supported)
While you can add Tier 3 language codes to employee profiles, these languages are not officially supported and have important limitations. We recommend using Tier 1 or 2 languages for the best experience.
Language (in English) | Native Language | Required System Code |
Afrikaans | Afrikaans | af |
Albanian | Shqip | sq-AL |
Amharic | አማርኛ | am-ET |
Armenian | Հայերեն | hy |
Belarusian | беларуская | be |
Bengali | বাংলা | bn |
Burmese | မြန်မာစာ | my |
Croatian | Hrvatski | hr |
Dari | دری | fa-AF |
Farsi | فارسی | fa-IR |
Gujarati | ગુજરાતી | gu |
Kannada | ಕನ್ನಡ | kn |
Maltese | Malti | mt |
Marathi | मराठी | mr |
Nepali | नेपाली | ne-NP |
North Sotho | Sepedi | ns |
Punjabi | ਪੰਜਾਬੀ | pa-PK |
Slovene | Slovenščina | sl |
Somali | Soomaali | so-SO |
Swahili | Kiswahili | sw |
Telugu | తెలుగు | te |
Urdu | اُردُو | ur |
Uzbek | O‘zbekcha | uz |
Zulu | isiZulu | zu |
Troubleshooting Language Settings
If an employee is not seeing the correct language, follow these steps to resolve the issue:
Verify the Employee Profile: Go to Settings > Users, locate the employee, and confirm the Preferred Language field is correctly populated.
Validate the Language Code: Ensure the code used in your CSV or HRIS matches an official supported code (e.g.,
pt-BRvs.pt).Check Formatting: Confirm the source column is titled exactly Language. Any variation will prevent the data from mapping to the profile field.
Confirm Feature Support: Check the Supported Languages article. Some languages are available for the general UI but may not yet be fully supported for specific modules.
Identify Custom Content: In modules like Develop, custom task notes or uploaded files remain in their original language. A "mixed-language" experience is expected if the content was not authored in the user's preferred language.
FAQs
Question | Answer |
What happens if I upload a language code that hasn't been activated on my account? | The employee's language preference will be saved in their profile, but they won't see the platform in that language until it's activated by our support team. |
What happens if a user's profile lacks a language code? | The system may use browser settings to infer the language, but assigning a language code to the user's profile is the most reliable way to ensure a consistent experience. |
Can I remove English as a language? | No. English is always available on the platform and cannot be removed. |
Can I add Tier 3 languages to employee profiles? | Yes, but these languages are not officially supported and have important limitations. We recommend using Tier 1 or 2 languages for the best experience. Check out our Supported Languages article to learn more. |
Who should I contact to enable or disable languages? | Please reach out to our Product Support Team via a support conversation. |
💬 Need help? Just reply with "Ask a Person" in a Support Conversation to speak with a Product Support Specialist.