I understand you problem Anna-- I "explained" Hempstead--because my parents occationaly "slipped" into the weird UK (type) pronounciations (ham stid)... as a child I had an Aunt MARY-- as an adult I learned her name was Marie--my mother said the name MAR (as in to "mar" a finish-- with the A almost as flat as a Boston A (I pahrked my cahr...) ee-- not the almost "mu REE" sound that is more common in US.(with the first vowel a schwa -- or a blur between an A and U sound...)-- so i, and siblings "mis heard it"-- but so did my aunt-- and she didn't correct us!
Maurice-- come out of my mothers mouth as "Morris", Rollie (short for Roland) as Raleigh--(Ra lee)-- and even with that -- it took me a few seconds to get "it depends" into "eighty pence" .
I think in hundred more years-- we will be like the Chinese-- words will look the same in US/UK/A-NZ "English"-- and we will be able to read each other text-- but the spoken language will be "foreign".
