[beardyw]

I listened to a talk, though I may not be able to find it now, about our ability to hear elements of language. They played consonant sounds used in different languages and I could not distinguish between some of them them at all. Apparently if as a child you are not exposed to them by the age of about 4 you will never be able to.

It is driving me mad that I can't remember where I heard it. It would be great if someone knows.

[devKnight]

This can be remedied with immediate feed back loops. There was an experiment where native Japanese speakers were taught to hear the difference between the English language R and L, which native Japanese speakers interpret as a sound that is sort of like an R, but kind of in the middle of the two.

Using an immediate feedback loop, where they heard the R and had to say if it was R or not, then L etc etc. They were able to pretty quickly grasp the difference.

After being able to notice this difference, it becomes easier to be able to pronounce these sounds that aren't found in one's native language.

This has been my experience when learning French(which has many sounds not used in English)