[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBJrLCd6ZBs) You can customize your map for a specific country or region in the following ways: - Change the default language settings. - Specify a region code, which alters the map's behavior based on a given country or territory. ## Language localization By default, the Maps JavaScript API uses the user's preferred language setting as specified in the browser, when displaying textual information such as the names for controls, copyright notices, driving directions and labels on maps. In most cases, it's preferable to respect the browser setting. However, if you want the Maps JavaScript API to ignore the browser's language setting, you can force it to display information in a particular language by adding a `language` parameter to the ` ``` [View example](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/map-language). If you set the language of the map, it's important to consider setting the [region](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/localization.md.txt#Region) too. This helps ensure that your application complies with local laws. **Note:** When you load the API in the manner shown above, the map uses the Japanese language for all users regardless of user preferences. Be sure you want this behavior before setting this option. The Maps JavaScript API also supports bi-directional (Bidi) text containing characters in both left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left (RTL) languages natively. Examples of RTL languages include Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi. Generally, you should specify RTL language pages to render properly by adding `dir='rtl'` to the page's `` element. The following example renders a map of Cairo, Egypt using Arabic controls: ```html ``` [View example](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/map-rtl.md.txt) ## Supported languages Google often updates supported languages. This list may not be exhaustive and is subject to change. | Language Code | Language | Language Code | Language | |---|---|---|---| | af | Afrikaans | ja | Japanese | | sq | Albanian | kn | Kannada | | am | Amharic | kk | Kazakh | | ar | Arabic | km | Khmer | | hy | Armenian | ko | Korean | | az | Azerbaijani | ky | Kyrgyz | | eu | Basque | lo | Lao | | be | Belarusian | lv | Latvian | | bn | Bengali | lt | Lithuanian | | bs | Bosnian | mk | Macedonian | | bg | Bulgarian | ms | Malay | | my | Burmese | ml | Malayalam | | ca | Catalan | mr | Marathi | | zh | Chinese | mn | Mongolian | | zh-CN | Chinese (Simplified) | ne | Nepali | | zh-HK | Chinese (Hong Kong) | no | Norwegian | | zh-TW | Chinese (Traditional) | pl | Polish | | hr | Croatian | pt | Portuguese | | cs | Czech | pt-BR | Portuguese (Brazil) | | da | Danish | pt-PT | Portuguese (Portugal) | | nl | Dutch | pa | Punjabi | | en | English | ro | Romanian | | en-AU | English (Australian) | ru | Russian | | en-GB | English (Great Britain) | sr | Serbian (Cyrillic) | | et | Estonian | sr-Latn | Serbian (Latin script) | | fa | Farsi | si | Sinhalese | | fi | Finnish | sk | Slovak | | fil | Filipino | sl | Slovenian | | fr | French | es | Spanish | | fr-CA | French (Canada) | es-419 | Spanish (Latin America) | | gl | Galician | sw | Swahili | | ka | Georgian | sv | Swedish | | de | German | ta | Tamil | | el | Greek | te | Telugu | | gu | Gujarati | th | Thai | | iw | Hebrew | tr | Turkish | | hi | Hindi | uk | Ukrainian | | hu | Hungarian | ur | Urdu | | is | Icelandic | uz | Uzbek | | id | Indonesian | vi | Vietnamese | | it | Italian | zu | Zulu | ## Region localization Add a `region` parameter to the ` ``` The following examples show two maps, one which geocodes "Toledo" based on a `region` set to `US` (US) to "Toledo, Ohio" and one which biases results based on a `region` set to `ES` (Spain) to "Toledo, Spain." View the [US example](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/geocoding-region-us) and the [ES example](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/examples/geocoding-region-es). ## Localization Demo When setting the language of the map, it's important to consider setting the region too. Here is a demo that lets you load the map with your choice of language and region. View this demo in [fullscreen](https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/demos/localization).