diff --git a/min_dalle/min_dalle.py b/min_dalle/min_dalle.py
index 2607026..adaa6f7 100644
--- a/min_dalle/min_dalle.py
+++ b/min_dalle/min_dalle.py
@@ -13,12 +13,17 @@ class MinDalle:
         model_path = os.path.join('pretrained', model_name)
 
         print("reading files from {}".format(model_path))
-        with open(os.path.join(model_path, 'config.json'), 'r') as f: 
+        config_path = os.path.join(model_path, 'config.json')
+        vocab_path = os.path.join(model_path, 'vocab.json')
+        merges_path = os.path.join(model_path, 'merges.txt')
+
+        with open(config_path, 'r', encoding='utf8') as f: 
             self.config = json.load(f)
-        with open(os.path.join(model_path, 'vocab.json'), 'r') as f:
+        with open(vocab_path, 'r', encoding='utf8') as f:
             vocab = json.load(f)
-        with open(os.path.join(model_path, 'merges.txt'), 'r') as f:
+        with open(merges_path, 'r', encoding='utf8') as f:
             merges = f.read().split("\n")[1:-1]
+            
         self.model_params = load_dalle_bart_flax_params(model_path)
 
         self.tokenizer = TextTokenizer(vocab, merges)