title: Counting UTF8 characters with Python
body: <p>I've been preparing a simple example of Python script for my students and I found to struggle to solve following issue.
  I am using <code>utf8</code> coding because I want them to use Polish characters, e.g.
  Ł, ą, ś. Now, the script is supposed to take name from the user and print it
  in the rectangular made of *. So this is what I want to show  them:</p>
  
  <pre><code>imie=raw_input('Podaj swoje imię: ') #Give your name
  
  dl=len(imie)
  
  print '*'*(dl + 4)
  print '*' + ' '*(dl + 2) + '*'
  print '* ' + imie + ' *'
  print '*' + ' '*(dl + 2) + '*'
  print '*'*(dl + 4)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The issue is that, for name such as <code>Antoś Mąka</code>, the <code>dl</code> variable value should be 11, but it is 13, because ś and ą signs are calculated as two.
  Is it possible to force <code>len()</code> function to calculate it as 1?</p>