100% !! Unless flags cover every country they're irritating and in [IE] case offensive. I'm less likely to buy from a website that incorrectly localises me to the wrong country, or forces me to pick a national flag I don't want to pick. Furthermore different territories and countries use different language variants - for example, centre/center, jumper/pullover/sweater, as well as different 'natural measurements' so unless you're 100% localising, always better to use words for languages. A great example of a localised site is microsoft, where they offer each country AND multiple languages, but