diff --git a/lib/linguist/samples.rb b/lib/linguist/samples.rb
index a7ecd1bd..b6bb9676 100644
--- a/lib/linguist/samples.rb
+++ b/lib/linguist/samples.rb
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ module Linguist
     def self.cache
       @cache ||= begin
         serializer = defined?(Yajl) ? Yajl : YAML
-        serializer.load(File.read(PATH))
+        serializer.load(File.read(PATH, encoding: 'utf-8'))
       end
     end