diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix
index c31cfceebbaa..c2aced4e45e4 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/docutils/default.nix
@@ -14,17 +14,15 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     sha256 = "0x22fs3pdmr42kvz6c654756wja305qv6cx1zbhwlagvxgr4xrji";
   };
 
-  checkPhase = if isPy3k then ''
-    ${python.interpreter} test3/alltests.py
-  '' else ''
-    ${python.interpreter} test/alltests.py
+  checkPhase = ''
+    LANG="en_US.UTF-8" ${python.interpreter} ${if isPy3k then "test3/alltests.py" else "test/alltests.py"}
   '';
 
   # Create symlinks lacking a ".py" suffix, many programs depend on these names
   postFixup = ''
-    (cd $out/bin && for f in *.py; do
-      ln -s $f $(echo $f | sed -e 's/\.py$//')
-    done)
+    for f in $out/bin/*.py; do
+      ln -s $(basename $f) $out/bin/$(basename $f .py)
+    done
   '';
 
   meta = {