I once complained to my California-to-the-bone son in law that when then President Reagan (long time Californian) greeted the president of Mexico with the traditional phrase: mi casa es su casa - he pronounced it 'Cazza' (not like 'pizza') - which I thought was inexcusable for someone living so close to the border.

But my son in law said: You mean, a Chinese man's name should be pronounced correctly too?

I don't know. In this country most of us don't live close to foreign language language speakers and just tend to do the best we can, I guess.

But Micca's original question still stands: Why are some foreign words readily accepted and learned while others become bastardized?

(I was a great reader very young- and had not yet learned to consult dictionaries. I remember well the teasing and ridicule I earned from my family from pronouncing 'fatigoo' (fatigue), 'Picturesquew' (picturesque) and 'caffy' (cafe) :)