Oracle column data types and NLS_LANG

Hi

I have 2 questions, I am an Oracle noob, so please bear with me.
Let me first give you some background: I am trying to write a Perl script to execute queries on an Oracle DB. I was having trouble connecting to the DB, but with the help of the Perl forum I managed to solve it. I had to set my NLS_LANG env. variable. I have set it to "ENGLISH_SOUTH AFRICA.WE8MSWIN1252". It seems to be working, but Im not sure if thats correct. Now for my questions.

1. Is there a way to determine which langauge setting and encoding the DB was designed to be used with. In my Windows registry it was set as "ENGLISH_SOUTH AFRICA.WE8MSWIN1252", How did that happen? I am in South Africa etc, but is that registry key just determined from the options you choose during installation?

2. When I do a SELECT on the database, the DATE columns dont show all the data. I create the table to use the DATE data type, and when the table is browsed using TOAD you can see all the data i.e. 2005-05-11 12:02:41 AM, but when I do the SELECT query in Perl I get 11/MAY/05. Is there a way using SQL or in Perl DBI to force the data type to show all the data?

Thanks