--- orig/mysql-connector-java-5.1.8/src/com/mysql/jdbc/CharsetMapping.java	2009-07-15 03:12:13.000000000 +1000
+++ mysql-connector-java-5.1.8/src/com/mysql/jdbc/CharsetMapping.java	2009-08-14 15:11:44.000000000 +1000
@@ -927,6 +927,10 @@
 	 * @throws SQLException if determination of the character encoding fails
 	 */
 	final static String getCharacterEncodingForErrorMessages(ConnectionImpl conn) throws SQLException {
+	        if (conn.getEncoding() != null) {
+	            return conn.getEncoding();
+        	}
+	    
 		String errorMessageFile = conn.getServerVariable("language");
 		
 		if (errorMessageFile == null || errorMessageFile.length() == 0) {