When i view the forums as a guest (before logging in) the buttons, and text on the forums are in English. If i log in then they become French, even though i have my profile set to display in English so i think the language option is broken

Hello Anakey.

You have been registred before the forum migration. New english users have the english language by default.

Your languages settings have been modified.

For all other users in this case:
Click on "Panneau de contrôle de l’utilisateur", Tab "Préférences du forum", line "Ma langue" and "Envoyer"

Thanks for that Skybird, I think I got confused and was changing the setting in 'Your Details' tab at the top instead of the forum control pannel