The settings on the Language Settings page apply to the translation of the Moodle interface. However, they do not apply to the translation of course content.

If you want to offer course content in multiple languages, you have several choices:

1. You could put all the different languages into each course, that is, each document would appear in a course in several languages. For example, if you offered a botany course in English and Spanish, you might have a document defining the different types of plants in both English and Spanish, side by side in the same course: Types of Plants or Tipos de Plantaras. While taking the course, students would select the documents in their language. Course names would appear in only one language.
2. You could create separate courses for each language and offer them on the same site. Course names would appear in each language. In this case, students would select the course in English or Spanish: Basic Botany or BotánicaBásica.
3. You could create a separate Moodle site for each language; for example, http://moodle.williamrice.com/english and http://moodle.williamrice.com/spanish. At the home page of your site, students would select their language and be directed to the correct Moodle installation. In this case, the entire Moodle site would appear in the student's language: the site name, menus, course names, and course content. These are things you should consider before installing Moodle.
4. You could use the Multi-Language Content filter, as described later in this chapter, to display the course content in the language selected by your user.
5. Lastly, you could use groupings to hide the different languages from different users.