How many different ways there are to pronounce a word “pear”?

Me and my Italian colleagues were in this Thai restaurant and were served by Irish looking girl. For the dessert she explained us that they have chocolate cake, strawberry cake and pear cake. We all asked for the pear one, but she didn’t understand or pretended not to and kept saying “pardon”… We tried to pronounce that damned word in all the possible ways we could, but honestly, when you have only 3 dessert choices… Finally the girl said, “oh, pear cake”. Of course! And that’s only one example of how Irish people don’t understand and don’t help the foreigners to be understood. In Italy this didn’t happen with me.