diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
index aa29468fb26..a643bfb5158 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -155,6 +155,8 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
                   else
                     SiteSetting.default_locale
                   end
+
+    I18n.fallbacks.ensure_loaded!
   end
 
   def store_preloaded(key, json)
diff --git a/config/cloud/cloud66/files/production.rb b/config/cloud/cloud66/files/production.rb
index b7f03a09774..db662574bee 100644
--- a/config/cloud/cloud66/files/production.rb
+++ b/config/cloud/cloud66/files/production.rb
@@ -23,11 +23,6 @@ Discourse::Application.configure do
   # Specifies the header that your server uses for sending files
   config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect' # for nginx
 
-  # Enable locale fallbacks for I18n (makes lookups for any locale fall back to
-  # the I18n.default_locale when a translation can not be found)
-  config.i18n.fallbacks = true
-
-
   # you may use other configuration here for mail eg: sendgrid
 
   config.action_mailer.delivery_method = :smtp
diff --git a/config/environments/production.rb b/config/environments/production.rb
index 30263174ada..013e37f597f 100644
--- a/config/environments/production.rb
+++ b/config/environments/production.rb
@@ -24,10 +24,6 @@ Discourse::Application.configure do
 
   config.log_level = :info
 
-  # Enable locale fallbacks for I18n (makes lookups for any locale fall back to
-  # the I18n.default_locale when a translation can not be found)
-  config.i18n.fallbacks = true
-
   if GlobalSetting.smtp_address
     settings = {
       address:              GlobalSetting.smtp_address,
diff --git a/config/environments/profile.rb b/config/environments/profile.rb
index 43531b0d5c1..1784a23528b 100644
--- a/config/environments/profile.rb
+++ b/config/environments/profile.rb
@@ -27,10 +27,6 @@ Discourse::Application.configure do
   # Specifies the header that your server uses for sending files
   config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect' # for nginx
 
-  # Enable locale fallbacks for I18n (makes lookups for any locale fall back to
-  # the I18n.default_locale when a translation can not be found)
-  config.i18n.fallbacks = true
-
   # we recommend you use mailcatcher https://github.com/sj26/mailcatcher
   config.action_mailer.smtp_settings = { address: "localhost", port: 1025 }
 
diff --git a/config/initializers/i18n.rb b/config/initializers/i18n.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..685e6e29c43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/initializers/i18n.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+# order: after 02-freedom_patches.rb
+
+# Include pluralization module
+require 'i18n/backend/pluralization'
+I18n::Backend::Simple.send(:include, I18n::Backend::Pluralization)
+
+# Include fallbacks module
+require 'i18n/backend/fallbacks'
+I18n.backend.class.send(:include, I18n::Backend::Fallbacks)
+
+# Configure custom fallback order
+class FallbackLocaleList < Hash
+  def [](locale)
+    # user locale, site locale, english
+    # TODO - this can be extended to be per-language for a better user experience
+    # (e.g. fallback zh_TW to zh_CN / vice versa)
+    [locale, SiteSetting.default_locale.to_sym, :en].uniq.compact
+  end
+
+  def ensure_loaded!
+    self[I18n.locale].each { |l| I18n.ensure_loaded! l }
+  end
+end
+I18n.fallbacks = FallbackLocaleList.new
diff --git a/config/initializers/pluralization.rb b/config/initializers/pluralization.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 0a567d44515..00000000000
--- a/config/initializers/pluralization.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-require "i18n/backend/pluralization"
-I18n::Backend::Simple.send(:include, I18n::Backend::Pluralization)
diff --git a/lib/freedom_patches/translate_accelerator.rb b/lib/freedom_patches/translate_accelerator.rb
index 95f9f9d0b12..7b3fc986a6c 100644
--- a/lib/freedom_patches/translate_accelerator.rb
+++ b/lib/freedom_patches/translate_accelerator.rb
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ module I18n
       end
     end
 
+    def ensure_loaded!(locale)
+      @loaded_locales ||= []
+      load_locale locale unless @loaded_locales.include?(locale)
+    end
+
     def translate(key, *args)
       load_locale(config.locale) unless @loaded_locales.include?(config.locale)
       return translate_no_cache(key, *args) if args.length > 0