Asian font displayed when typing

[Tami Design]

When I type anywhere on the computer except in a software program like word or InDesign etc. the type shows in Chinese (I　think) it is asian. In the finder windows, file names and in my safari. I have to write what I want on a　Word document　and then cut and paste it into the window for it to display in English. This is what it looks like if I don’t:
あsdfgっhjrちゅいおいうmfrgdmっlhgjdhdgdfxっvgfhfh

Also I was moving my desktop icon from the panel on the left and it went up in a poof of smoke and I can’t find it again, how do I get that back?

 

[Satcomer]

Open System Preferences->Language & Text and make sure English (or whatever you want) is at the top on the language stack. Then download the cache cleaning utility Yasu or Onyx and run all the cache cleaning routines. Then let the program reboot your Mac and upon that software reboot immediately manually reboot again to completely rebuild your startup/shutdown cache.

Also how much room (free disk space) do you have left on your Mac?

When asking questions always list the version of OS X you are using. I ask this because it really helps a lot in answering a software question easier.

 

[Giaguara]

Also do you have a lot of fonts you have installed?
If OnyX or Yasu can't clean the system to get the font gibberish solved, disable ALL fonts you have installed and see if that makes a difference. If the gibberish is gone, at least one of your fonts is causing the problem. In that case, enable 50 % of your fonts again, see if the problem happens again, an again enable or disable 50 % of the remaining until you have found the bad fonts.