Retrieve performance counter value in a language-independent way

Under Windows, performance counters have different names, depending on the operating system language. For example, on an English Windows version, there is the performance counter \Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time. The same counter is called \Prozessor(_Total)\Prozessorzeit (%) on a German Windows version.

Is there any way to retrieve the performance counter value in a language-independent way (using C++ or C#)? Or is there an alternative to get the processor load of the whole computer without performance counters?