diff --git a/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py b/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
index a1938dd9f..dd3e5ca7a 100644
--- a/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
+++ b/chatterbot/conversation/statement.py
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ class Statement(StatementMixin):
     """
 
     def __init__(self, text, **kwargs):
+        import sys
 
         # Try not to allow non-string types to be passed to statements
         try:
@@ -36,6 +37,13 @@ def __init__(self, text, **kwargs):
         except UnicodeEncodeError:
             pass
 
+        # Prefer decoded utf8-strings in Python 2.7
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            try:
+                text = text.decode('utf-8')
+            except UnicodeEncodeError:
+                pass
+
         self.text = text
         self.tags = kwargs.pop('tags', [])
         self.in_response_to = kwargs.pop('in_response_to', [])
diff --git a/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/models.py b/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/models.py
index 121a6587a..8be09f86e 100644
--- a/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/models.py
+++ b/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/models.py
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
-from sqlalchemy import Table, Column, Integer, String, DateTime, ForeignKey, PickleType
+from sqlalchemy import Table, Column, Integer, DateTime, ForeignKey, PickleType
 from sqlalchemy.orm import relationship
 from sqlalchemy.sql import func
 from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declared_attr, declarative_base
+from chatterbot.ext.sqlalchemy_app.types import UnicodeString
 from chatterbot.conversation.statement import StatementMixin
 
 
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ class Tag(Base):
     A tag that describes a statement.
     """
 
-    name = Column(String)
+    name = Column(UnicodeString)
 
 
 class Statement(Base, StatementMixin):
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ class Statement(Base, StatementMixin):
     A Statement represents a sentence or phrase.
     """
 
-    text = Column(String, unique=True)
+    text = Column(UnicodeString, unique=True)
 
     tags = relationship(
         'Tag',
@@ -90,7 +91,7 @@ class Response(Base):
     Response, contains responses related to a given statement.
     """
 
-    text = Column(String)
+    text = Column(UnicodeString)
 
     created_at = Column(
         DateTime(timezone=True),
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ class Response(Base):
 
     occurrence = Column(Integer, default=1)
 
-    statement_text = Column(String, ForeignKey('statement.text'))
+    statement_text = Column(UnicodeString, ForeignKey('statement.text'))
 
     statement_table = relationship(
         'Statement',
diff --git a/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/types.py b/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/types.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b48f4f6e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chatterbot/ext/sqlalchemy_app/types.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+from sqlalchemy.types import TypeDecorator, Unicode
+
+
+class UnicodeString(TypeDecorator):
+    """
+    Type for unicode strings.
+    """
+
+    impl = Unicode
+
+    def process_bind_param(self, value, dialect):
+        """
+        Coerce Python bytestrings to unicode before
+        saving them to the database.
+        """
+        import sys
+
+        if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
+            if isinstance(value, str):
+                value = value.decode('utf-8')
+        return value
diff --git a/chatterbot/input/input_adapter.py b/chatterbot/input/input_adapter.py
index 2e764d1a5..17b1dbe14 100644
--- a/chatterbot/input/input_adapter.py
+++ b/chatterbot/input/input_adapter.py
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ def process_input_statement(self, *args, **kwargs):
         Return an existing statement object (if one exists).
         """
         input_statement = self.process_input(*args, **kwargs)
+
         self.logger.info('Received input statement: {}'.format(input_statement.text))
 
         existing_statement = self.chatbot.storage.find(input_statement.text)
diff --git a/tests/training_tests/test_list_training.py b/tests/training_tests/test_list_training.py
index 74bd46056..dd63f2c07 100644
--- a/tests/training_tests/test_list_training.py
+++ b/tests/training_tests/test_list_training.py
@@ -115,6 +115,38 @@ def test_training_with_unicode_characters(self):
 
         self.assertEqual(response, conversation[2])
 
+    def test_training_with_emoji_characters(self):
+        """
+        Ensure that the training method adds statements containing emojis.
+        """
+        conversation = [
+            u'Hi, how are you? 😃',
+            u'I am just dandy 👍',
+            u'Superb! 🎆'
+        ]
+
+        self.chatbot.train(conversation)
+
+        response = self.chatbot.get_response(conversation[1])
+
+        self.assertEqual(response, conversation[2])
+
+    def test_training_with_unicode_bytestring(self):
+        """
+        Test training with an 8-bit bytestring.
+        """
+        conversation = [
+            'Hi, how are you?',
+            '\xe4\xbd\xa0\xe5\xa5\xbd\xe5\x90\x97',
+            'Superb!'
+        ]
+
+        self.chatbot.train(conversation)
+
+        response = self.chatbot.get_response(conversation[1])
+
+        self.assertEqual(response, conversation[2])
+
     def test_similar_sentence_gets_same_response_multiple_times(self):
         """
         Tests if the bot returns the same response for the same