I’m a native (non-American) English speaker and the American pronunciation, to me, doesn’t sound like keht at all. (German was technically my first language, although English became my main language at an early age, so I’m quite used to German accents, so it’s definitely not caused by the native accents imho)
I once (when I was ~15 or so) had an argument with a kid who simply would not believe me that the letters C-A-T aren’t pronounced keht
The English books seemed to teach the correct thing, however, using the correct IPA and giving the correct hints. Just like with "I've got [something]".
It's also definitely not the case that the "a" in American English "cat" is pronounced like "a" usually is in German. In that case, the "a" sounds much closer to a German "e" then a German "a". The IPA for AE "cat" is kæt, not kat (where in some parts of Britain it actually is kat).
I’m a native (non-American) English speaker and the American pronunciation, to me, doesn’t sound like keht at all. (German was technically my first language, although English became my main language at an early age, so I’m quite used to German accents, so it’s definitely not caused by the native accents imho)
I once (when I was ~15 or so) had an argument with a kid who simply would not believe me that the letters C-A-T aren’t pronounced keht