diff --git a/src/main/java/net/knarcraft/permissionsigns/formatting/Translator.java b/src/main/java/net/knarcraft/permissionsigns/formatting/Translator.java
index 1b09dbb..0ae9b37 100644
--- a/src/main/java/net/knarcraft/permissionsigns/formatting/Translator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/net/knarcraft/permissionsigns/formatting/Translator.java
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
@@ -88,7 +89,8 @@ public final class Translator {
 
         try {
             PermissionSigns.getInstance().getLogger().log(Level.WARNING, "Loading custom strings...");
-            return loadTranslatableMessages(language, new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(strings))));
+            return loadTranslatableMessages(language, new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
+                    new FileInputStream(strings), StandardCharsets.UTF_8)));
         } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
             PermissionSigns.getInstance().getLogger().log(Level.WARNING, "Unable to load custom messages");
             return null;