diff --git a/tests/i18n/test_compilation.py b/tests/i18n/test_compilation.py
index 791c1d4f15..299c07a93f 100644
--- a/tests/i18n/test_compilation.py
+++ b/tests/i18n/test_compilation.py
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ class CompilationErrorHandling(MessageCompilationTests):
         # po file contains invalid msgstr content (triggers non-ascii error content).
         # Make sure the output of msgfmt is unaffected by the current locale.
         env = os.environ.copy()
-        env.update({'LANG': 'C'})
+        env.update({'LC_ALL': 'C'})
         with mock.patch('django.core.management.utils.run', lambda *args, **kwargs: run(*args, env=env, **kwargs)):
             cmd = MakeMessagesCommand()
             if cmd.gettext_version < (0, 18, 3):