diff --git a/whispercpp.pyx b/whispercpp.pyx
index 56f6a88..fba2eff 100644
--- a/whispercpp.pyx
+++ b/whispercpp.pyx
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ cdef whisper_full_params default_params() nogil:
     params.print_realtime = True
     params.print_progress = True
     params.translate = False
+    params.language = <const char *> LANGUAGE
     n_threads = N_THREADS
     return params