The most often-repeated example I've heard of place names being said like that is "Iraq", which here is pronounced to rhyme with "tie-rack".

I hadn't realized just how... much of a difference there was until I lived here - even now, I keep on discovering new barriers to communication. As I've often said, it somehow feels more different because it's so similar, making you expect things to be... easy. And as much as I don't want them to, when you're surrounded by them, these things take over - I remember I said "I'm good" once to somebody, in front of my dad. Now he mocks me for every Americanism slip I make.