Don't use a word if you can't pronounce it correctly!

Another great one from NZ I was watching one of the motorway police series and as they were dealing with a crash there was a shunt in the next lane and the policeman said that he hated rubber knickers

Mr GG and I have just come back from a late lunch. Our waitress informed us that she "telepathetically" knew we wanted the wine list Grrr.

I regularly mispronounce words and place names deliberately, just so that my OH can correct me. I get a laugh at him, and he can feel clever.

PECS as I live in NZ, I'm eternally grateful I'm not called Peggy.

None of these things irk me too much but do notice: mischiev-i-ous
Booey rather than buoy (boy)
"Can I have a panini?" (panini is plural not singular) "May I have a panino?' is correct apparently.

My mother in law used to refer to a mort-gage but when I looked up its origins, it means 'death pledge' so maybe she was right.

I used to say (when a child) muncipal for municipal. There was a charming show, ages ago, with young children reading unusual words. Predictably the producers had one little lassie saying 'Grand Prix'.

And how many people say the "Moet" of Moet & Chandon and "mo-ay"? He was Dutch and his name is said Mo-ette.
But in the end, pedant though I am sometimes (English teachers often are) none of it really matters.

Apparently my German gt grandfather struggled with the English pronunciation despite living amongst them for many years.
Daughter to rhyme with slaughter and laughter to rhyme with dafter and just when he thought he'd got it right he spotted a theatre billboard advertising " new show starring FloraDora. Pronounced Success " he despaired.

My Dad used to do voluntary work for his Church. He had to enter names into the register, he always pronounced it red-chester. We never corrected him.
He used to mis-pronounce words just for fun. A favourite was Rip-your-corsets-off for Rimsky-korsakov.

My multi- lingual dad did not have an accent to me but others commented on it and asked where he was from. But I did tease him when he asked for a scissor or help to find his trouser!

MiniMoon, my mother used to call Rimsky-Korsakov Rinse-a-corffee-cup. In fun, of course.

or Rip my corsets off I seem to recall from school!

When I was a student we acquired a new Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry, all the way from NZ.
He was immediately nicknamed Bruce (after the Monty Python sketch) and we all suddenly had to make dintures for our patients instead of dentures.
As soon as Bruce appeared in the clinic or lab, students would start asking each other in loud voices where their pins and pincils had got to.
I have to say that Bruce bore all this with great good humour

It is hard to employ NZ infant teachers as their phonic sounds differ from the ones thw DfE expect schools to teach!

Before we were married, my DH and I stayed with an aunt and uncle of his while visiting the area. His aunt was telling me all about a lovely meal they'd recently had in a local restaurant and praised the wonderful merring-gyoo that was served for dessert .
My DD and I have always, between ourselves, jokingly called a gilet a gillit, with a hard 'g'. I really should be more careful, though, to remember not to say it in company. I've caused raised eyebrows on more than one occasion and feel sure my explanation, that it's a joke my DD and I share, has not been believed

My grandmother told me that for years she thought unhappy people had eyes full of "unched" tears instead of un shed tears!

I don’t know why it should matter particularly if a word is mispronounced and I hope I’d never embarrass or demean someone by calling attention to such a thing.

That said, some years ago I was helping a daughter get settled in a new house and we were both reduced to giggling heaps who had to leave the room every time the decorator referred to his spatoola (rhymes with Petula). He was kindly instructing us on how to fill in hairline cracks with his trusty tool. (No pun intended)

Bradford Lass: none of it really matters.

I beg to differ. If pronunciations start to diverge like this, where will it stop? In the end it will end up with everyone speaking practically a different language and no one will understand what the other says. In this day and age, accurate communication is already deteriorating and many disagreements (and worse) are only due to unnecessary misunderstandings.

When I lived in France, I heard of some body called Penny lope (she was French) and it took me a couple of seconds to rearrange it in my mind!