Well, we appear to be on the right track, and that would explain the odd icon that's appeared in my task bar. Why any of the Binoettes would have been in there at all is beyond me, but anyway, I changed it to English (British) from English (American) to see if that would make any difference and it didn't.
What language should I be in? Afrikaans?
Edit: Hang on, just remembered B4 asked if she could download a program to enable her to type in Japanese. Obviously some connection here, but just what I still don't know. Microsoft Global IME was apparently the program. Any further suggestions?