title: Encoding in R: How to convert this string to UTF-8?
body: <p>I am using R to read data from an old fame database. This works fine in general but I get unexpected encoding back when reading descriptions. E.g.:</p>
  
  <pre><code>a &lt;- "\U3e34653c"
  # is supposed to be 
  "ä"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried to <code>iconv</code> my self around this problem but despite trying numerous possibilities I was not able to get it displayed in a proper way. my locale: en_US.UTF-8. Is there a way around replacing (sub) such strings?</p>