Thanks for the condescension, but I actually speak several languages and have studied the diction of many others. Chinese languages are notoriously hard to pronounce if you didn't grow up using those phonemes. What sounds fine to the ear of a non-native speaker will absolutely not sound the same to a native speaker.
My chamber choir performed a new piece in Mandarin by a chinese-american composer. He gave us the transliteration of the lyrics in the International Phonetic Alphabet (in which we were all fluent) and a recording of him speaking the lyrics slowly. We worked hard on it all semester, and when the composer came to our dress rehearsal we anxiously asked him if we'd gotten it right. To our ears it sounded exactly like what was on the tape. He just laughed, shook his head, and said. "Not even close. But it's OK."
It sounds like the people you were talking to were being very kind, patient, and charitable.