Well, that's one thing I enjoy about living overseas. There are MANY frustrations I have culturally, but most Chinese speakers here (I'm not in China, but very nearby) would very likely not attack you for that.

They'll probably correct your pronunciation, since Chinese is tonal, and you'll probably get that part wrong even if you study Chinese.... To them it's four clearly different tones. To me it's four words that all sound nearly identical...

I've told people here about the "happy holidays" vs. "Merry Christmas" nonsense back home. They usually can't understand it. I tell them it's like if they say "Happy Chinese New Year!" and I say "fuck you! That's not MY culture's holiday! Be more inclusive!"

Instead I just say "happy new year to you too!" and we both smile and everyone is happy....

I celebrate Christmas but would have zero problems returning a "happy Hannukah" or a.... What do they say for Kwanzaa? I've never had anyone wish me a happy one... If they did, I'd just say it back.

These days I celebrate Christmas and then a month or two later we have Chinese New Year, with time off from work, and gits and lots of food... Double holidays are awesome.. Why not...?

Anyway, I don't know how they're instructing people to say it in America, but I know how actual native speakers say it. I'd go with that.

It's possible though that the first one you mentioned was Cantonese, or another dialect. The one I said was Mandarin. A lot of Chinese people in the US, especially in restaurants and such are from Hong Kong, which is Cantonese. Those people also tend to be a lot snippier and short tempered... Could just be a case of Cantonese attitude. In the Mandarin world though, people will just be impressed that you know how to say it in Chinese and smile. It's not easy to get people here to smile either, but that almost always works