diff --git a/actions/profilesettings.php b/actions/profilesettings.php
index f2fe89826e..bc4fce50b9 100644
--- a/actions/profilesettings.php
+++ b/actions/profilesettings.php
@@ -140,6 +140,9 @@ class ProfilesettingsAction extends SettingsAction {
 				common_log_db_error($user, 'UPDATE', __FILE__);
 				common_server_error(_('Couldn\'t update user.'));
 				return;
+			} else {
+				# Re-initialize language environment if it changed
+				common_init_language();
 			}
 		}
 
diff --git a/actions/register.php b/actions/register.php
index d97e3a18af..c539108420 100644
--- a/actions/register.php
+++ b/actions/register.php
@@ -98,6 +98,8 @@ class RegisterAction extends Action {
 				common_debug('Adding rememberme cookie for ' . $nickname);
 				common_rememberme($user);
 			}
+			# Re-init language env in case it changed (not yet, but soon)
+			common_init_language();
 			$this->show_success();
 		} else {
 			$this->show_form(_('Invalid username or password.'));
diff --git a/index.php b/index.php
index fad6266466..de39dd020c 100644
--- a/index.php
+++ b/index.php
@@ -22,6 +22,14 @@ define('LACONICA', true);
 
 require_once(INSTALLDIR . "/lib/common.php");
 
+# get and cache current user
+
+$user = common_current_user();
+
+# initialize language env
+
+common_init_language();
+
 $action = $_REQUEST['action'];
 
 if (!$action || !preg_match('/^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]*$/', $action)) {
diff --git a/lib/util.php b/lib/util.php
index a904e34e06..5e6d9fc6fa 100644
--- a/lib/util.php
+++ b/lib/util.php
@@ -131,11 +131,7 @@ function common_end_xml() {
 	$xw->flush();
 }
 
-define('PAGE_TYPE_PREFS', 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.3,text/xml;q=0.2');
-
-function common_show_header($pagetitle, $callable=NULL, $data=NULL, $headercall=NULL) {
-	global $config, $xw;
-
+function common_init_language() {
 	$language = common_language();
 	# So we don't have to make people install the gettext locales
 	putenv('LANGUAGE='.$language);
@@ -148,7 +144,13 @@ function common_show_header($pagetitle, $callable=NULL, $data=NULL, $headercall=
 	bindtextdomain("laconica", $config['site']['locale_path']);
 	bind_textdomain_codeset("laconica", "UTF-8");
 	textdomain("laconica");
-	
+}
+
+define('PAGE_TYPE_PREFS', 'text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.3,text/xml;q=0.2');
+
+function common_show_header($pagetitle, $callable=NULL, $data=NULL, $headercall=NULL) {
+	global $config, $xw;
+
 	$httpaccept = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT']) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT'] : NULL;
 
 	# XXX: allow content negotiation for RDF, RSS, or XRDS