title: MySQL - storing characters in different language or special symbols
body: <p>I need to create a table in MySQL which stores the different currency symbols of the different countries in the world. These symbols are in different languages and are not getting inserted into the database and it throws errors like</p>
  
  <pre><code>incorrect string value xd8\x8b
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Sample data is:</p>
  
  <pre>
  insert into country ( country_name, currency_name, currency_code, currency_symbol) values 
  ('Afghanistan','Afghanis','AFN',' ؋'),
  ('Aruba','Guilders','AWG',' ƒ'),
  ('Azerbaijan','New Manats','AZN',' ман'),
  ('Bulgaria','Leva','BGN',' лв'),
  ('Costa Rica','Colón','CRC',' ₡'),
  ('Cuba','Pesos','CUP',' ₱'),
  ('Cyprus','Euro','EUR',' €'),
  ('Czech Republic','Koruny','CZK',' Kč'),
  ('Ghana','Cedis','GHC',' ¢'),
  ('Iran','Rials','IRR',' ﷼'),
  ('Israel','New Shekels','ILS',' ₪'),
  ('Japan','Yen','JPY',' ¥'),
  ('Kazakhstan','Tenge','KZT',' лв'),
  ('Korea','Won','KPW',' ₩'),
  ('Laos','Kips','LAK',' ₭'),
  ('Macedonia','Denars','MKD',' ден'),
  ('Mongolia','Tugriks','MNT',' ₮'),
  ('Nigeria','Nairas','NGN',' ₦'),
  ('Pakistan','Rupees','PKR',' ₨'),
  ('Russia','Rubles','RUB',' руб'),
  ('Vietnam','Dong','VND',' ₫'),
  ('Yemen','Rials','YER',' ﷼');
  </pre>
  
  <p>I am using MySQL 5.1.22 and this is the current table structure:</p>
  
  <pre>
  CREATE TABLE `country` (
    `country_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `country_name` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
    `currency_name` varchar(100) DEFAULT NULL,
    `currency_code` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
    `currency_symbol` varchar(20) DEFAULT NULL,
    `date_created` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
    `last_modified` datetime DEFAULT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (`country_id`)
  ) ENGINE=InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT=48 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
  </pre>
  
  <p>Is it just a matter of changing the CHARSET to something else?</p>