Rails distance_of_time_in_words returns “en, about_x_hours”

I'm having a weird problem, hoping someone knows what the issue is...

Using distance_of_time_in_words (and consequently time_ago_in_words) is not returning the actual time distance. Instead it is returning things like "en, about_x_hours" or "en, x_minutes".

The pattern is correct, as in:

time_ago_in_words(50.minutes.ago) => "en, about_x_hours"
time_ago_in_words(3.minutes.ago) => "en, x_minutes"

But why on earth is it displaying "x" instead of the actual number, "_" instead of spaces, and "en, " at the beginning of all of that?!