diff --git a/spacy/compat.py b/spacy/compat.py
index ff73caddd..848ea816a 100644
--- a/spacy/compat.py
+++ b/spacy/compat.py
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ elif is_python3:
     json_dumps = lambda data: ujson.dumps(data, indent=2)
     path2str = lambda path: str(path)
 
+def getattr_(obj, name, *default):
+    if is_python3 and isinstance(name, bytes):
+        name = name.decode('utf8')
+    return getattr(obj, name, *default)
+
 
 def symlink_to(orig, dest):
     if is_python2 and is_windows:
@@ -79,7 +84,7 @@ def is_config(python2=None, python3=None, windows=None, linux=None, osx=None):
 def normalize_string_keys(old):
     '''Given a dictionary, make sure keys are unicode strings, not bytes.'''
     new = {}
-    for key, value in old:
+    for key, value in old.items():
         if isinstance(key, bytes_):
             new[key.decode('utf8')] = value
         else:
diff --git a/spacy/util.py b/spacy/util.py
index 7120be98c..087a43881 100644
--- a/spacy/util.py
+++ b/spacy/util.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ import ujson
 
 from .symbols import ORTH
 from .compat import cupy, CudaStream, path2str, basestring_, input_, unicode_
-from .compat import copy_array, normalize_string_keys
+from .compat import copy_array, normalize_string_keys, getattr_
 
 
 LANGUAGES = {}