Major Problems After Getting New Hard Drive

Background: I am an American foreign exchange student currently in Germany.

I dropped my PowerBook G4 on its corner about two weeks ago, damaging its hard drive. We brought it into the Apple Store, and they put a new hard drive into my laptop, along with all of my old data.

Problems:
1). Now, EVERYTHING on my laptop (menus, the keyboard, all of my applications) are in German, and despite how many times I go to the System Preferences (or, as it is now called, "Systemeinstellungen") and change the language to English, everything remains in German.
2). Many of my macintosh applications will not open, such as iPhoto and iTunes. I have tried to throw away and redownload at least iTunes, yet my computer will NOT let me throw anything away.
3). Personal preferences in general will NOT save, such as the language options as I said, but also I cannot even change the desktop image, and each time I try to open many applications, it is as if I am using it for the first time (example: with iChat or Adium, it makes me refill in all my registration information each time I use it).

There are so many problems and inconsistencies within my computer now, I feel like I don‘t even know it anymore

I‘m sorry my descriptions are not very specific, but I often cannot even read the specifics of the GERMAN alert boxes that pop up. Please feel free to ask me to clarify things!!

Thank you so much for reading, and I would appreciate any help! I want my baby back to normal :/. Although, I guess I should probably just bring it back to the Apple store.

I'm guessing you didn't bring your original OS CD with you? You could try reinstalling your OS in your own language...

Hey yoshimi!

It sounds as though there might be a permissions issue...
OS X always includes the english language files, so it sounds as though your preference isn't being stored.

Did you try logging out and then back in again after making the change? (The language in your apps won't change until you do that or relaunch each app individually...)


Where in Germany are you located?

Yes! My Apple guy in Kiel (by the way, I am located about 30 minutes from Kiel) told my hostdad something about not having permission rights for many things, and I think I caught onto the german word "Zugriffsrechte" in an alert pop up box, or something, which translates to "access rights".

And yes, I tried both logging out and restarting my computer after trying to change the language... Yep, so preferences are being stored. But what do I do about it?

Thanks for your help!

Open Programme > Dienstprogramme > Festplattendienstprogramm.
Then select your hardrive from the list on the left and choose 'Zugriffsrechte reparieren' from the center of that window.

Once it's finished, give changing the language another go.

alright, i tried doing so, i tried repairing both the hard drive icons i saw in the left hand bar (i hope that isnt bad), changed the language to english, then i logged out, logged back in, and it was still in german. hmmmm

thanks again for your reply!;D