diff --git a/app/src/processing/app/I18n.java b/app/src/processing/app/I18n.java
index 3356f8e79..5a61fb3d7 100644
--- a/app/src/processing/app/I18n.java
+++ b/app/src/processing/app/I18n.java
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ public class I18n {
   static protected void init (String language) {
     // there might be a null pointer exception ... most likely will never happen but the jvm gets mad
     try {
-      if (language == null || language.trim().isEmpty()) locale = Locale.getDefault();
+      if (language == null || language.trim().length() == 0) locale = Locale.getDefault();
       else locale = new Locale(language);
       i18n = ResourceBundle.getBundle("processing.app.Resources", locale);
     } catch (java.lang.NullPointerException e) {