title: python3 - UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xe4'
body: <p>I am running into a <code>UnicodeEncodeError</code> with a file that I am processing in Python. I have gone through the number of SO entries with similar errors, but none work fix my situation (or do not give sufficient detail to apply them correctly to my problem).</p>
  
  <p>Upon investigating, I've nailed the issue down to the following example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>➜ python
  Python 3.5.2 | packaged by conda-forge | (default, Jul  7 2016, 12:51:46)
  [GCC 4.8.2 20140120 (Red Hat 4.8.2-15)] on linux
  Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
  &gt;&gt;&gt; y = u'\xe4'
  &gt;&gt;&gt; print(y)
  Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "&lt;stdin&gt;", line 1, in &lt;module&gt;
  UnicodeEncodeError: 'ascii' codec can't encode character '\xe4' in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)
  
  ➜ echo $LANG
  en_US.UTF-8
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How might I resolve this?</p>