@Ghost of Hope I think that’s a stress timed/syllable timed distinction more than anything else (stress timed languages tend to swallow syllables to make them fit, so if you don’t know to listen for the tonic syllables it’s really hard to get the words).

Curiously Brazilian Portuguese is syllable timed, which is the biggest difference. That I wouldn’t mind. What made my ears bleed was rendering all the consonants as “tch”.