UK/US different terminology

Yes, this!  I do this all the time, I really hope people don't think I'm correcting them, I'm just thinking out loud for the most part.  I was at work the other day and a had a bottle of Mountain Dew sitting on the table nearby, and a co-worker said, out of the blue, "Where do you buy your mon-dun-joo?"  He also pronounced the word very quickly.  I had to ask four or five times for him to repeat himself before he finally drew my attention to the bottle itself, and I blurted out, " OH!  Mount - An - Doo!  I wasn't correcting him at all, I was joining his foreign pronunciation to my mental image of the words 'Mountain Dew', for future references.  I do this ALL the time.  I really cannot imagine most people would be so rude as to try and force you to pronounce things differently.  They are most likely doing what I am doing!

I agree with this because I've done the same thing.  It took me about 30 minutes to understand that a friend of mine was saying 'house' because she was pronouncing it 'owwws'.  When I finally figured out what she was saying I was like, "Oh, you're saying house" and we had a big laugh about it.

The difference is when people do this with your own name.  "Oh, you mean [insert your own pronunciation here]".  It's like, "Not really.  I meant that it's my name so it should be pronounced this way."  Even when I lived in Italy and my mouth just couldn't make some of the sounds correctly, I always tried to be conscious of pronouncing people's names the way they were intended (even if it meant changing my accent for that purpose).  I don't lose sleep over this or anything but I do find it annoying.  I can't imagine how my sister feels when over half of her own family can't say her name correctly!

The difference is when people do this with your own name.  "Oh, you mean [insert your own pronunciation here]".  It's like, "Not really.  I meant that it's my name so it should be pronounced this way."  Even when I lived in Italy and my mouth just couldn't make some of the sounds correctly, I always tried to be conscious of pronouncing people's names the way they were intended (even if it meant changing my accent for that purpose).  I don't lose sleep over this or anything but I do find it annoying.  I can't imagine how my sister feels when over half of her own family can't say her name correctly!

I guess I didn't feel that any differently here than in the US. I have a made-up name that is not spelled phonetically so I have had to endure the mispronunciation of it my entire life.  I stopped correcting people a long time ago!

Yes, this!  I do this all the time, I really hope people don't think I'm correcting them, I'm just thinking out loud for the most part.  I was at work the other day and a had a bottle of Mountain Dew sitting on the table nearby, and a co-worker said, out of the blue, "Where do you buy your mon-dun-joo?"  He also pronounced the word very quickly.  I had to ask four or five times for him to repeat himself before he finally drew my attention to the bottle itself, and I blurted out, " OH!  Mount - An - Doo!  I wasn't correcting him at all, I was joining his foreign pronunciation to my mental image of the words 'Mountain Dew', for future references.  I do this ALL the time.  I really cannot imagine most people would be so rude as to try and force you to pronounce things differently.  They are most likely doing what I am doing!

I agree completely.  When I have done this in the past, this is exactly why I've done it.

I was talking to my fiance's niece about her hair. I asked her about her bangs and she gave me a weird look. Not used to using the word fringe!

At least you're not these poor chaps!
Scottish Voice Operated Lift

that was great!

LOL  So funny!!

This may have already been said, but Adidas was founded by a man named Adi Dassler. That clarified it for me. Don't know where ADEEdas came from.

My DH loved the youtube clip!

On the "how do you pronounce company names" question, I saw an Aquafresh commercial the other day and in the commercial "aqua" pronounced the British way whereas in US commercials it's pronounced (wait for it) the American way.

In other news, one of my classmates was telling me he ordered a pair of "metals".
Me: "What?" - I'm big on the intelligent questions.
CM: "Metals. Boots. For the snow."
Me: "What?" - see what I mean?"
CM: "Merills shoes."
Me: "Oh! 'Merrells'!
I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to wear metal shoes, especially in the snow.

On the "how do you pronounce company names" question, I saw an Aquafresh commercial the other day and in the commercial "aqua" pronounced the British way whereas in US commercials it's pronounced (wait for it) the American way.

Is there much of a difference though? (I'm not familiar with Aquafresh, and don't have a television..)
I'm English and have lived in America for 20 years.  I just asked two colleagues here at work, how they pronounced these three words;
Aqua
Aquaculture
Aqueduct (BTW only just found out aqueduct is spelled this way!!)
We all three said the words the same, with a short "a" at the beginning.  Maybe because we live in the northeast?  I think many Americans pronounce "aqua" with a longer "a" at the beginning, a bit like the Spanish pronunciation?

I think many Americans pronounce "aqua" with a longer "a" at the beginning, a bit like the Spanish pronunciation?

I have lived in various parts of Spain and in each region they said "agua" with a short a at the beginning.

Shouldn't you pronounce a word as they do in the original language?

I mean 'pasta' is an Italian word, isn't it, and 'Milan'?

Words are pronounced differently in different regions of a country. I heard that when Sophia Loren first started making films in Italy, her voice was dubbed because other Italians couldn't understand her dialect of Italian.

Besides, there is no such thing as an "original language" for a word, unless you are talking about a language spoken by prehistoric human beings.  Words evolve from other words, and languages evolve from other languages.

According to etymologyonline.com:

Pasta  - from It. pasta, from L.L. pasta "dough, pastry cake, paste," from Gk. pasta "barley porridge," probably originally "a salted mess of food," from neut. pl. of pastos (adj.) "sprinkled, salted," from passein "to sprinkle."

According to Wikipedia, Milan was originally called Medhlan by the Celts.

Shouldn't you pronounce a word as they do in the original language?

I mean 'pasta' is an Italian word, isn't it, and 'Milan'?

It is so weird if you speak a language and get told, by people who don't speak it, that you are saying a word wrongly. For example if you say paella and folk say "You mean pay-ella"... This bugs me a bit, but I have got used to it.

"Milan" is the English name for the city called Milano by the people who live there. There are a number of places in Europe (mostly but also elsewhere) which have English names which are pronounced or spelled differently (or both) from the local name. Naples/Napoli, The Hague/Den Haag, Copenhagen/København, Rome/Roma, Brussels/Bruxelles/Brussel. And many more, but that's not really what we are on about.