diff --git a/bin/ud/ud_train.py b/bin/ud/ud_train.py
index 945bf57eb..2784d7c3c 100644
--- a/bin/ud/ud_train.py
+++ b/bin/ud/ud_train.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import plac
 from pathlib import Path
 import re
-import sys
 import json
 
 import spacy
@@ -19,12 +18,9 @@ from spacy.util import compounding, minibatch, minibatch_by_words
 from spacy.syntax.nonproj import projectivize
 from spacy.matcher import Matcher
 from spacy import displacy
-from collections import defaultdict, Counter
-from timeit import default_timer as timer
+from collections import defaultdict
 
-import itertools
 import random
-import numpy.random
 
 from spacy import lang
 from spacy.lang import zh
@@ -323,10 +319,6 @@ def get_token_conllu(token, i):
     return "\n".join(lines)
 
 
-Token.set_extension("get_conllu_lines", method=get_token_conllu, force=True)
-Token.set_extension("begins_fused", default=False, force=True)
-Token.set_extension("inside_fused", default=False, force=True)
-
 
 ##################
 # Initialization #
@@ -459,13 +451,13 @@ class TreebankPaths(object):
 
 @plac.annotations(
     ud_dir=("Path to Universal Dependencies corpus", "positional", None, Path),
+    parses_dir=("Directory to write the development parses", "positional", None, Path),
     corpus=(
-        "UD corpus to train and evaluate on, e.g. en, es_ancora, etc",
+        "UD corpus to train and evaluate on, e.g. UD_Spanish-AnCora",
         "positional",
         None,
         str,
     ),
-    parses_dir=("Directory to write the development parses", "positional", None, Path),
     config=("Path to json formatted config file", "option", "C", Path),
     limit=("Size limit", "option", "n", int),
     gpu_device=("Use GPU", "option", "g", int),
@@ -490,6 +482,10 @@ def main(
     # temp fix to avoid import issues cf https://github.com/explosion/spaCy/issues/4200
     import tqdm
 
+    Token.set_extension("get_conllu_lines", method=get_token_conllu)
+    Token.set_extension("begins_fused", default=False)
+    Token.set_extension("inside_fused", default=False)
+
     spacy.util.fix_random_seed()
     lang.zh.Chinese.Defaults.use_jieba = False
     lang.ja.Japanese.Defaults.use_janome = False
@@ -506,8 +502,8 @@ def main(
 
     docs, golds = read_data(
         nlp,
-        paths.train.conllu.open(),
-        paths.train.text.open(),
+        paths.train.conllu.open(encoding="utf8"),
+        paths.train.text.open(encoding="utf8"),
         max_doc_length=config.max_doc_length,
         limit=limit,
     )
diff --git a/examples/training/conllu-config.json b/examples/training/conllu-config.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9a11dd96b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/training/conllu-config.json
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"nr_epoch": 3, "batch_size": 24, "dropout":  0.001, "vectors":  0, "multitask_tag":  0, "multitask_sent":  0}
diff --git a/examples/training/conllu.py b/examples/training/conllu.py
index dfc790456..d9ee721ec 100644
--- a/examples/training/conllu.py
+++ b/examples/training/conllu.py
@@ -13,8 +13,7 @@ import spacy.util
 from spacy.tokens import Token, Doc
 from spacy.gold import GoldParse
 from spacy.syntax.nonproj import projectivize
-from collections import defaultdict, Counter
-from timeit import default_timer as timer
+from collections import defaultdict
 from spacy.matcher import Matcher
 
 import itertools
@@ -290,11 +289,6 @@ def get_token_conllu(token, i):
     return "\n".join(lines)
 
 
-Token.set_extension("get_conllu_lines", method=get_token_conllu)
-Token.set_extension("begins_fused", default=False)
-Token.set_extension("inside_fused", default=False)
-
-
 ##################
 # Initialization #
 ##################
@@ -381,20 +375,24 @@ class TreebankPaths(object):
 
 @plac.annotations(
     ud_dir=("Path to Universal Dependencies corpus", "positional", None, Path),
+    parses_dir=("Directory to write the development parses", "positional", None, Path),
+    config=("Path to json formatted config file", "positional", None, Config.load),
     corpus=(
-        "UD corpus to train and evaluate on, e.g. en, es_ancora, etc",
+        "UD corpus to train and evaluate on, e.g. UD_Spanish-AnCora",
         "positional",
         None,
         str,
     ),
-    parses_dir=("Directory to write the development parses", "positional", None, Path),
-    config=("Path to json formatted config file", "positional", None, Config.load),
     limit=("Size limit", "option", "n", int),
 )
 def main(ud_dir, parses_dir, config, corpus, limit=0):
     # temp fix to avoid import issues cf https://github.com/explosion/spaCy/issues/4200
     import tqdm
 
+    Token.set_extension("get_conllu_lines", method=get_token_conllu)
+    Token.set_extension("begins_fused", default=False)
+    Token.set_extension("inside_fused", default=False)
+
     paths = TreebankPaths(ud_dir, corpus)
     if not (parses_dir / corpus).exists():
         (parses_dir / corpus).mkdir()
@@ -403,8 +401,8 @@ def main(ud_dir, parses_dir, config, corpus, limit=0):
 
     docs, golds = read_data(
         nlp,
-        paths.train.conllu.open(),
-        paths.train.text.open(),
+        paths.train.conllu.open(encoding="utf8"),
+        paths.train.text.open(encoding="utf8"),
         max_doc_length=config.max_doc_length,
         limit=limit,
     )