Japanese has one liquid sound where English keeps two — the famous r/l pair — and a syllable structure that likes a vowel after every consonant. Most of the work below is about giving English its two liquids, its th pair, and its wider vowel map.
Length is the good news: Japanese already treats short and long vowels as different words (obasan, obāsan), which is exactly the muscle ship vs sheep needs.
The Japanese r sits between English r and l. For English r the tongue curls back and touches nothing — no tap anywhere.
Hear the pair side by side →The same single sound, pulled the other way: for l the tongue tip does touch, firmly, on the ridge behind the teeth, and holds.
Hear the pair side by side →No Japanese word needs θ, so think slides toward sink. Tongue tip between the teeth, soft continuous air.
Hear the pair side by side →The voiced th of this buzzes between the teeth — one step forward from the Japanese z.
Hear the pair side by side →Japanese writes v-words with バ行, so very leans toward berry. For v the teeth rest on the lip and the air buzzes through — no full stop.
Hear the pair side by side →Before i, Japanese s becomes sh (し) automatically. English keeps them independent: sea and she are different words in every vowel context.
Hear the pair side by side →Japanese a is central; English asks it to split. The a of apple is wide and forward — jaw down — where the u of cup stays small and central.
Hear the pair side by side →You already have vowel length as a habit. Map it onto ship (short, relaxed) vs sheep (long, tense) and this pair is nearly free.
Hear the pair side by side →The zh of vision tends to pick up a d in front. Vision wants the smooth buzz alone — no stop before it.
Hear the pair side by side →Which of these are actually yours? That is the part no list can know.
Nunzio records you reading a sentence and scores every sound in it on your phone — nothing is uploaded — then names the one worth your next ten minutes. No list, no guessing: your recording. Nunzio — Accent Coach is coming to the App Store and Google Play.