I live in Japan, my systems are configured in English, but when I'm at the office my internet is routed through a proxy which is somehow localized to India (I have no idea where is its actual location).
- I get Google in English most of the time (though sometimes it will pop back to Japanese)
- Google account settings on the other hand will most of the time show in Japanese (I'm OK though, I know the language)
- Search results include Japanese language websites at home
- I get Japanese ads at home and Indian ads at work, especially funny on Youtube.
- Google Maps is all over the place though, sometimes showing me Japan, India but also defaulting to US of A...
Note: you rant about two settings for language, but that makes sense. I want to see the Google interface in English because this is my preferences for interfaces, but I want local search results including Japanese language websites because that is what's useful to me most of the time.