Chinese is so, so difficult to pronounce. I would consider learning some useful characters.
While I was out there, I was much better off writing down characters, than trying to speak. I couldn’t tell the difference between my pronunciation and theirs, but they couldn’t even understand me (or it took 7 or 8 tries).
I think it’s because there aren’t many sinophone lǎowài, so they really struggle with the accents. Even the English students I met out there, who had been studying Chinese at university for 2 or 3 years, had to repeat themselves two or three times for each sentence…
After a few months you’ll probably be able to be understood for most words, but I don’t reckon you’d be able understand them in normal conversation.
I kept meaning to, but never got round to it, make flashcards. Have a little pocketbook, with each page as one chinese word or small phrase, with the English underneath. When you want to say “pork”, just flick to the page. Eventually you will learn the character for pork, and maybe even the pronunciation.