1. A computer implemented method for use of an internationalized version of a software application with a plurality of cultural preferences comprising the steps of: providing a plurality of locales each for customizing the international software application to one of the cultural preferences, said locales being stored and accessible at a plurality of storage locations; using multiple part identifiers for accessing the locales, one identifier for each of the locales, each identifier having: a required part for identifying a root locale, and at least one of: a first optional part for identifying one or more variations of the root locale, each variation to provide a different cultural preference of the root locale, and a second optional part for identifying a particular instance of the locale identified by the required part of the identifier or both the required and first parts of the identifier; and using at least one lookup table for obtaining the particular locale instance.