Typical Japanese

As you know, Japanese people tend not to pronounce "R" and "L" properly.
Of course, me neither.
The other day, my friend tried to collect my pronunciation and finally,
If I take time to pronounce, I could manage to pronounce those two.
(Of course, in conversations, I cannot take time as much as I want, so I always pronounce wrong.)

We have a common friend called "Ray", but I knew I could not pronounce his name.
I was told my pronunciation was more likely "Lay".
So I asked my friend how to pronounce "Ray".
My friend taught me by pushing his tongue into a throat side.
It looked very difficult for me and I asked
"But wait, nobody did like this when they call him"

He said...

"Because...your pronunciation was so cute, everybody copied yours and called him like you do."

Oh my gooooood!!!
I did not know it and it is really rude for him.

According to my friend, Ray stopped people not to call him like this at the beginning, but later he gave up...lol

Sorry, Ray... I can call your name now only if I take 10 seconds to do so...