What to do?  the text doesnt come out in English.  I am using windows 10, and latest version downloaded yesterday..

type English letters and it comes out like hierogliphics..

the contextual button is stuck and wont change.. has the blue check mark on it...

what i type in the text box is garbled hierogliphics, but it shows correctly in the side panel, but not on the page per se

I can think of two possibilities.

1.  Try changing the font selection, either in the Text dialog (the side panel) or in the text tool controls bar at the top.

2.  Check that the stroke is set to [None] and the fill is set to a solid colour.

If neither of these works for you, show us the problem by attaching an SVG file to your reply.