This probably make zero sense to English speakers here, but:
One of the one I realize is: 唔好 (don’t/no)
Jyutping (romanization): (m⁴ hou²) and the way I heard/pronunced it morphed into one character like 母 (mou²)
即刻 (Now/Immediately) (zik¹ hak¹) Somehow became like (zik¹ kak¹)
There no character with pronounciation kak¹ not even ones with a different tone.
Also I think I also have some random Taishanese sounds/vocabulary mixed in…
Doesn’t help the only people I speak this language to 99% of the time is with family, so if there is an error, I would never know about it.
Probably how pronounciations become different as a population disperses to different regions.
I wonder if I ever go to Hong Kong… if I could pretend to be a local and see if anyone would expose me xD.
I knew someone who was born in the states but lived with Korean family and extended family. They consider Korean to be their mother tongue, but when they visited Korea everyone said they had an American accent.
I studied Mandarin for a few years, and while I can’t speak it (no one to practice with, lol) I can sometimes pick out accents. I mean, I can tell when Australian is speaking Mandarin. So I’m sure it’s the same with an American accent. There’s nothing wrong with it, even in the states people can tell when you were raised in a different part of the country because of pronunciation or other language quirks.
Edit: this is a meme but it is one of my favorite examples of pronunciation differences
Wanna voice call? I speak Mandarin… well… sort of… Went to school in China up to the 2nd grade level… and I listened to Chinese tv drama for like a few years after being in the US, so I have a basic grasp on the language.
Actually who am I kidding… I have too much anxiety and voice shy to talk to strangers… flashback to phone calls to trying to find treatment for depression
I actually wanna use those language exchange apps and maybe like talk to random Chinese Diaspora around the world, but too scared, too socially awkward, xD
I love the enthusiasm! I am also not a fan of phone calls, and by now it has been too many years since I practiced. I should get back into it though. My local university has a Chinese club, I’ve been tempted to drop in a few times lol