diff --git a/Lib/locale.py b/Lib/locale.py
index 9ae981f9a13..8a26744ed08 100644
--- a/Lib/locale.py
+++ b/Lib/locale.py
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ def resetlocale(category=LC_ALL):
     def getpreferredencoding(do_setlocale = True):
         """Return the charset that the user is likely using."""
         import _locale
-        return _locale.getdefaultlocale()[1]
+        return _locale._getdefaultlocale()[1]
 else:
     # On Unix, if CODESET is available, use that.
     try: