Random Fact #17

Random Fact #17: If you normally use amazon.comto buy things online but use Amazon.fr to buy something one time, you will receive emails about deals and sales from Amazon in both English and French.

Source: Personal Experience

The story: Once upon a time, I was in France and I needed to buy a copy of James Joyce's Ulyssesbefore I left for Ireland. I went to Amazon.com and found that priority shipping the book to my host mother's home in France would 1) take forever 2) be reeeeeeally expensive.

So I thought to myself, "Self, you've been in this country for a while and you've really gotten the hang of this whole French thing. Why don't you try the French version of the website?" So I tried it. And I found that ordering my book from the French website would 1) get me the book a leeeetle bit faster 2) be WAY less expensive.

So I clicked the button to finalize the deal, and a few days later, my book arrived. All good.

But then I started getting emails from Amazon in French. I was used to getting them in English and usually just ignored them. But getting French emails really caught me off guard. I had used my normal login information and account on the French website, so I didn't think it would consider me a new user or anything, but for whatever reason, I now get emails from Amazon in both English and French.

The novelty wore off pretty fast and now I just ignore the French emails, too.