mysql> show variables like '%char%';
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Variable_name | Value |
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
| character_set_client | utf8 |
| character_set_connection | utf8 |
| character_set_database | utf8 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | utf8 |
| character_set_server | utf8 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server 5.5\share\charsets\ |
+--------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+
8 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql>