Say my name!

I like my name.

It does however create some problems at times. For some strange reason, whenever I travel abroad and I have to give my name people seem to have problems with it. This wouldn't normally be an unusual thing for people from our part of the world, but my name looks and sounds pretty much like a word in English. There's only one "F" differentiating Ofer from Offer so I'm always surprised when people mess it up.

This has happened to me on so many occasions and in so many countries that I already have local nicknames for myself in some parts of the world. To this day there are people in the Dominican Republic who think that my name is Paco. And after some recent experiences I'm thinking of switching to Arthur whenever I travel in English speaking countries.

But a couple of days ago the unexpected has happened - someone actually got my name right on the first try! Not only the pronunciation - the spelling too! Seeing my surprise she claimed that "Yes, I can spell" and after I explained to her the rarity of this she concluded with "I'm just talented this way".

This made me happy, mainly because it meant that I would actually get the sandwich I ordered (if this has never happened to you you should watch the Seinfeld episode that takes place in the Chinese restaurant - George Costanza is waiting for an important telephone call and fails to understand that when they call out for "Cartwright" they're actually calling him). It also meant that there was still hope, and that maybe I should wait with my switch to Arthur.

Best regards,

Arthur

a.k.a.

Paco

a.k.a.

Ofer