diff --git a/egs/wsj/s5/utils/validate_data_dir.sh b/egs/wsj/s5/utils/validate_data_dir.sh
index 3eec443a06b..8728d137bfa 100755
--- a/egs/wsj/s5/utils/validate_data_dir.sh
+++ b/egs/wsj/s5/utils/validate_data_dir.sh
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@ fi
 num_utts=`cat $tmpdir/utts | wc -l`
 if ! $no_text; then
   if ! $non_print; then
-    if locale -a | grep "C.UTF-8" >/dev/null; then
+    if locale -a | grep "C.utf8\|C.UTF-8" >/dev/null; then
       L=C.UTF-8
     else
       L=en_US.UTF-8