The other day my wife, who speaks fluent German, stumbled across the language selector on Facebook — not exactly front and center, hidden way down at the bottom of the feed. While exploring, she noticed an unexpected option: “Pirate English.” Naturally, she clicked it. And sure enough, Facebook transformed into a swashbuckling interface straight out of the high seas.
With International Talk Like a Pirate Day coming up on Friday, 19 September 2025, it got me thinking: imagine a social media brand deal where a company fully commits — pirate-themed posts, treasure chest giveaways, and all. It’s quirky, viral-friendly, and proves that even small tweaks in platform settings can spark big creative ideas.
Here’s how to do it:
- Scroll way down to the bottom of the page until you see the Facebook copyright as below.
- Click the current language (which is most like English) and the Languages dialog overlays the screen.
- Select Pirate English. Facebook begins to transform itself and when it stops, your page should look something like this.
Be sure to check your email from Facebook while you’re at it because it continues the Pirate theme. It’s a lot of fun and when you want to change back to regular English, just follow these instructions and choose English. Have fun.
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2013 update
The directions have changed since I first wrote this back in 2009:
1) Click the Gear icon at the top of the Facebook page and select Account Settings.
2) The account settings page opens and the language setting is the last one in the list.
3) Click the Edit link next to it. The Choose Primary drop-down list appears.
4) Click the drop-down list and you’ll still find Pirate English as an option.