Installing multiple languages - yes/no?

[Mr. Matt]

I'm going through the process of installing my first forum.

My question is, if I install other language files what does that do?  Does that give the user an option to view help files and forum instructions in another language?  I think that might be useful to some people.  Does anyone have experience with a multiple language board that could explain the languages a bit more?

Also, the board isn't installed as UTF-8.  As I understood, that should mean members are not allowed to use non-Latin characters.  However I just tried posting a couple messages in Chinese and Arabic and the posts worked.

To sum up, I want my board to be customisable so members can choose their language to view the help topics and instructions and I want users to be able to type their own language.

As I understand I should change to UTF-8 and install the languages I need, correct?

Thanks for your patience.  I know this is probably a typical newbie question

[Mr. Matt]

Ok, I've been playing around with it and understand about the language files.  Is there a way to ask the user when registering what they would like to have as their default language?