diff --git a/lib/misc.zsh b/lib/misc.zsh
index 6987c099c..0b7cb2696 100644
--- a/lib/misc.zsh
+++ b/lib/misc.zsh
@@ -16,14 +16,7 @@ alias please='sudo'
 ## more intelligent acking for ubuntu users
 alias afind='ack-grep -il'
 
-## how to interpret text characters
-if [[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" && -z "$LC_ALL" ]]; then # only define if undefined
-	export LC_CTYPE=${LANG%%:*}                 # pick the first entry from LANG
-	[[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" ]] && \
-		export LC_CTYPE=`locale -a | grep en_US.utf8 | head -1`
-	[[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" ]] && \
-		export LC_CTYPE=`locale -a | grep en_US | head -1`
-	[[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" ]] && \
-		export LC_CTYPE=C                         # default to internal encoding.
+# only define LC_CTYPE if undefined
+if [[ -z "$LC_CTYPE" && -z "$LC_ALL" ]]; then
+	export LC_CTYPE=${LANG%%:*} # pick the first entry from LANG
 fi
-