I check the 'Active Topics' for updates and to catch any English spam in non-English forums. The French and German forums have been pretty slow lately, so I try to reply if I notice any posts, even if online translators don't do a great job sometimes.
I used to be able to order food and ask for directions in French, but I haven't used it in so long pretty much all I remember now is how to tell people my name and what colour my pencil is.
You may not be able to set the compatibility mode through Steam, but in Windows Explorer you can browse to the folder where you installed the game, and right click on the divinity2.exe and/or divinity2-debug.exe files directly (for the regular or Developer Mode versions of the game, respectively) and select Properties in order to set options in the Compatibility Tab.
As long as you are there, you can also try checking the option to run the game as administrator, and in Win 7 disable Desktop Composition.
You can start the game directly, without having Steam running, though I think if you set the compatibility option from the executable file they should be applied if you start the game through Steam, as well.
