@brianmario this is a mysql2 bug: https://github.com/brianmario/mysql2/blob/master/ext/mysql2/client.c#L132-L133

The error message will only be in the conn charset in mysql 5.5+  :cry:

Before then, it's in whatever charset corresponds to the error message language set in libmysqlclient.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/charset-errors.html