diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
index 6e1f0f8..d39b417 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
     FastGettext.default_locale = environment.default_locale
     FastGettext.locale = (params[:lang] || session[:lang] || environment.default_locale || request.env['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'] || 'en')
     I18n.locale = FastGettext.locale
+    I18n.default_locale = FastGettext.default_locale
     if params[:lang]
       session[:lang] = params[:lang]
     end
diff --git a/config/initializers/i18n.rb b/config/initializers/i18n.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..232f48b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/initializers/i18n.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# necessary for I18n.default_locale to work
+require 'i18n/backend/fallbacks'
+I18n.backend.class.send :include, I18n::Backend::Fallbacks
+
--
libgit2 0.21.2