Jason,
Thanks a lot for your helpful pointers as well as insights.
Looks like the "-a" switch was thoughtfully added in to the newer version to cover such situations. Clearly emphasizing an evolution in multi-language database support.
We are not sure if we could take the route of customizing the collation at this point. It could make our application both backward & forward (upgrade) incompatible then.
You have a wonderful holiday season.
Thanks again.
Tejo