title: Which encoding is in use by csv.DictReader when reading csv?
body: <p>I have a csv file saved encoded as UTF-8. </p>
  
  <p>It contains non-ascii chars [umlauts].</p>
  
  <p>I am reading the file using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>csv.DictReader(&lt;file&gt;,delimiter=&lt;delimiter&gt;).
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My questions are: </p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>In which encoding is the file being read? </li>
  <li><p>I noticed that in order to refer to the strings as utf-8 I need to perform: </p>
  
  <pre><code>str.decode('utf-8')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a better approach then reading the file in one encoding and then to convert to another, i.e. <code>utf-8</code>?</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>[Python version: 2.7]</p>