My name is indecipherable to Russians. Due to its strange English sounds (J, TH, W), it gets spelled differently on every visa, which has led to my embarrassing/suspicious habit of checking the spelling of my name when I am filling out official dokumenty.

But my first name is the real problem, since people want to call me Liza, and I hate that. As far as I can remember, I've been called: Bet, ELEEzabet, ElizaBET, Bess, Beff, and even Butt, even though I always spell it and say it the same way: Бэт. I think some people know how it's spelled in English and think they can say the "th" sound. But they can't.

I'm going to finally send you that list now.