Language change in VLC/Gimp?

I downloaded VLC while I was over in Yemen and it came up in Arabic. Not a big surprise, but my Arabic isn't good enough to navigate the myriad menus. When I got back to the states, I figured I'd download the program again. I deleted the program, downloaded it again, and it was still in Arabic! I just downloaded Gimp, and it's all in Arabic as well! Clearly there is some sort of preference somewhere that is defaulting to Arabic, but I have no idea where it is. Help!

Isaac