diff --git a/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/kickstart b/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/kickstart
index 1ef6acc8..667608c0 100644
--- a/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/kickstart
+++ b/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/kickstart
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 %include /tmp/rootpw
 %include /tmp/timezone
 %include /tmp/partitioning
+%include /tmp/langinfo
 reboot
 
 %packages
diff --git a/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/scripts/pre.sh b/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/scripts/pre.sh
index e2abf2c4..cf4bcca8 100644
--- a/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/scripts/pre.sh
+++ b/confluent_osdeploy/el8/profiles/default/scripts/pre.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 nodename=$(grep ^NODENAME /etc/confluent.info|awk '{print $2}')
+locale=$(grep ^locale: /etc/confluent.deploycfg)
+locale=${locale#locale: }
+echo lang $locale > /tmp/langinfo
 tz=$(grep ^timezone: /etc/confluent.deploycfg)
-tz=${tz#*: }
+tz=${tz#timezone: }
 echo timezone $tz --utc > /tmp/timezone
 rootpw=$(grep ^rootpassword /etc/confluent.deploycfg | awk '{print $2}')
 if [ "$rootpw" = null ]; then
diff --git a/confluent_server/confluent/selfservice.py b/confluent_server/confluent/selfservice.py
index d012617e..fbc0f61f 100644
--- a/confluent_server/confluent/selfservice.py
+++ b/confluent_server/confluent/selfservice.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import time
 import yaml
 
 currtz = None
+currlocale = en_US.UTF-8
 currtzvintage = None
 
 
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@ def yamldump(input):
 
 def handle_request(env, start_response):
     global currtz
+    global currlocale
     global currtzvintage
     nodename = env.get('HTTP_CONFLUENT_NODENAME', None)
     apikey = env.get('HTTP_CONFLUENT_APIKEY', None)
@@ -79,6 +81,17 @@ def handle_request(env, start_response):
         if currtzvintage and currtzvintage > (time.time() - 30.0):
             ncfg['timezone'] = currtz
         else:
+            langinfo = subprocess.check_output(
+                ['localectl', 'status']).split(b'\n')
+            for line in langinfo:
+                line = line.strip()
+                if line.startswith('System Locale:'):
+                    currlocale = line.split('=')[-1]
+                    if not currlocale:
+                        continue
+                    if not isinstance(currlocale, str):
+                        currlocale = currlocale.decode('utf8')
+                    break
             tdc = subprocess.check_output(['timedatectl']).split(b'\n')
             for ent in tdc:
                 ent = ent.strip()
@@ -89,6 +102,7 @@ def handle_request(env, start_response):
                     currtzvintage = time.time()
                     ncfg['timezone'] = currtz
                     break
+        ncfg['locale'] = currlocale
         ncfg['nameservers'] = []
         for dns in deployinfo.get(
                 'services.dns', {}).get('value', '').split(','):