diff --git a/activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/utils.rb b/activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/utils.rb
index acef84d..6e71b79 100644
--- a/activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/utils.rb
+++ b/activesupport/lib/active_support/multibyte/utils.rb
@@ -26,11 +26,11 @@ module ActiveSupport #:nodoc:
     else
       def self.verify(string)
         if expression = valid_character
-          for c in string.split(//)
-            return false unless valid_character.match(c)
-          end
+          # note: split(//) will split on Unicode characters if $KCODE='UTF8'
+          string.split(//).all? {|c| expression.match(c)}
+        else
+          true
         end
-        true
       end
     end
 
@@ -49,13 +49,12 @@ module ActiveSupport #:nodoc:
     else
       def self.clean(string)
         if expression = valid_character
-          stripped = []; for c in string.split(//)
-            stripped << c if valid_character.match(c)
-          end; stripped.join
+          # note: split(//) will split on Unicode characters if $KCODE='UTF8'
+          string.split(//).grep(expression).join
         else
           string
         end
       end
     end
   end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end