This is Monsieur *averinen (without H-letter) calling

I have a normal name. My name is Antti Haverinen, a typical Finnish surname. In Belgium I have faced a new challenge. How to explain my name on the phone?

This challenge makes me mad. I would want to be for example de Gaulle or something similar. Everybody knows that!

The problem why I am always misunderstood based on the fact of H-letter in French. When it is the first letter of name, it is not supposed to pronounce at all. Like hotel is “otel”, so my surname is “averinen”.

Yesterday I made a call to some interesting recruiting firm here in Brussels. The call started badly. “I’m sorry, what is your name. Could you repeat to me again?”, a French-speaking lady said.

I explained and spelled that for her trying to give a good impression. I think  I wasn’t so good at this time, although I consider myself as a master of spelling.

Actually, my name is quite simple one to explain. The real challenge is to say my email-address.

Naturally, I have my own domain and my email is antti@anttihaverinen.net. Guess, how many times I have tried to simplify my explanation on the phone.