diff --git a/tts_lightning_modules.py b/tts_lightning_modules.py
index 1e080ee..57a4ec0 100644
--- a/tts_lightning_modules.py
+++ b/tts_lightning_modules.py
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ def __init__(self, decoder: torch.nn.Module, decoder_loss: torch.nn.Module,
             prepend_space_to_text=prepend_space_to_text,
             append_space_to_text=append_space_to_text,
             add_bos_eos_to_text=add_bos_eos_to_text,
-            phonemizer_cfg=phonemizer_cfg)
+            phonemizer_cfg=phonemizer_cfg, encoding="utf-8")
 
         self.predict_mode = predict_mode
         assert(predict_mode in {'tts', 'reconstruction'})
@@ -845,4 +845,4 @@ def validation_step(self, batch, batch_idx):
         for k, (v, w) in loss_outputs.items():
             self.log("val/"+k, v)
             loss = v * w if loss is None else loss + v * w
-        return output_dict
\ No newline at end of file
+        return output_dict