diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 57ca3a91d859d9..fdafd3da1846bf 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -86,6 +86,19 @@ jobs:
           command: |
             docker run panda_safety_replay /bin/bash -c "cd /openpilot/panda/tests/safety_replay; PYTHONPATH=/openpilot ./test_safety_replay.py"
 
+  language_check:
+    machine:
+      docker_layer_caching: true
+    steps:
+      - checkout
+      - run:
+          name: Build image
+          command: "docker build -t language_check -f tests/language/Dockerfile ."
+      - run:
+          name: Check code for bad language
+          command: |
+            docker run language_check /bin/bash -c "cd /panda/tests/language; ./test_language.py"
+
 workflows:
   version: 2
   main:
@@ -94,3 +107,4 @@ workflows:
       - misra-c2012
       - build
       - safety_replay
+      - language_check
diff --git a/tests/language/list.txt b/tests/language/list.txt
index 0a6753562ab264..cfd25897d8dc55 100644
--- a/tests/language/list.txt
+++ b/tests/language/list.txt
@@ -449,4 +449,3 @@ whore
 willies
 willy
 xrated
-xxx
diff --git a/tests/language/test_language.py b/tests/language/test_language.py
index 03b5cd2f4bf34c..3afb34619aa19f 100755
--- a/tests/language/test_language.py
+++ b/tests/language/test_language.py
@@ -10,19 +10,19 @@
 
     suffix_cmd = " "
     for i in checked_ext:
-      suffix_cmd +=  "-- '*." + i + "' "
+      suffix_cmd +=  "--include \*." + i + " "
 
-    found_profanity = False
+    found_bad_language = False
     for line in handle:
       line = line.rstrip('\n').rstrip(" ")
       try:
-        cmd = "cd ../../; git grep --ignore-case -w '" + line + "'" + suffix_cmd
+        cmd = "cd ../../; grep -R -i -w " + suffix_cmd + " '" + line + "'"
         res = subprocess.check_output(cmd, shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
         print res
-        found_profanity = True
+        found_bad_language = True
       except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
         pass
-  if found_profanity:
-    sys.exit("Failed: Found profanities")
+  if found_bad_language:
+    sys.exit("Failed: found bad language")
   else:
     print "Success"