[coolgeek]

I think that you can if you pay attention to detail.

Two quick examples, that I've noticed over the years.

Most non-native speakers pronounce the Italian ciao as "chow". But I noticed that a woman in Capri pronounced it as "chah oh". Not as separated phonemes, but as a smooth, quick transition from one to the next.

Similarly, most non-native speakers pronounce the French oui as "we". Instead, it is pronounced as "oo ee" - again, a smooth, quick transition from one phoneme to the next.

(I'm compelled to confess that I only speak English. But I have some understanding of Romance languages (and took a few years of French, decades ago). And, like many other programmers, linguistics in general is an interest of mine.)

[durub]

Cool points, coolgeek and ogwh. Totally agree on paying attention to detail. I think that we go too far from understanding the fundamentals, and that cripples us.

Being there is the first step. If you aren't "there", paying attention, everything is way, way harder.

If you don't focus on what your tongue, mouth and the air is doing, how are you going to learn to pronounce better? We just try a bunch of things and see what sticks -- not very efficient.

Thanks for the comments, they made me reflect a lot.

[ogwh]

I speak some French but no where near fluent. Native English.

I pronounce "oui" not as "we" but as you describe. The sound starts at the back of the tongue towards the throat and barely involves the lips, unlike "we" which starts with the lips.

Just an anecdote you might find interesting for whatever reason.