When I’m going through observations on the identify page, sometimes I run across records where the place name is in another language. I’m guessing that the observer has this other language as their default. If I open the observation, the place name below the map is in that language but if I open the details pane, the place names are in English.
This is not a bug, it is intended behaviour. That is a free text field that users can enter anything they want to into it (in any language), or which can pick up the names from the language on their device. There is no attempt to translate the text if it is in a language different than the one you are using.
Likewise there is no translation of the place names in iNat.
I thought these place names were a lookup field that uses Google Maps place names.
It operates both ways. If you type in a name and press enter, it will attempt to find a matching place and set the pin location, then copy back the text description from that place. If you DON’T press enter, then when you save the observation it records the text as entered. See my description of how this is useful here:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/difference-between-map-and-written-location/5726/5
