diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 70598b201..8fd2ddfd7 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -13,3 +13,4 @@
 .idea/
 .vs/
 .DS_Store
+.vscode/
diff --git a/OMPython/__init__.py b/OMPython/__init__.py
index 864de8be5..31c7da1df 100755
--- a/OMPython/__init__.py
+++ b/OMPython/__init__.py
@@ -698,6 +698,7 @@ def __init__(self, readonly=False, timeout = 10.00, docker = None, dockerContain
         # set omc executable path and args
         self._set_omc_command([
                                "--interactive=zmq",
+                               "--locale=C",
                                "-z={0}".format(self._random_string)
                                ])
         # start up omc executable, which is waiting for the ZMQ connection