diff --git a/kagi.el b/kagi.el
index cf70087..da34be9 100644
--- a/kagi.el
+++ b/kagi.el
@@ -257,7 +257,7 @@ list of conses."
           ;; prevent a nil in the result list, causing (json-encode)
           ;; to generate a wrong request object.
           (when kagi-summarize-default-language
-            `(("target_language" . kagi-summarize-default-language)))))
+            `(("target_language" . ,kagi-summarize-default-language)))))
 
 (defun kagi--call-text-summarizer (text)
   "Return a response object from the Summarizer with the TEXT summary."