>>> import os
>>> a = os.getenv('LC_ALL'); print a
C
>>> b = os.getenv('LANG'); print b
C
>>> import locale
>>> cur_lang_code, cur_encoding = locale.getdefaultlocale()
>>> print cur_lang_code, cur_encoding
None None

knoppix@Knoppix:~$  locale
LANG=C
LANGUAGE=us
LC_CTYPE="C"
LC_NUMERIC="C"
LC_TIME="C"
LC_COLLATE="C"
LC_MONETARY="C"
LC_MESSAGES="C"
LC_PAPER="C"
LC_NAME="C"
LC_ADDRESS="C"
LC_TELEPHONE="C"
LC_MEASUREMENT="C"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="C"
LC_ALL=C