Pronunciation is an important part of any language. Often we sell ourselves far too short for far too many mythical reasons and give up early on improving our pronunciation. It is of course not the end all of language learning, but I think for all of us, a goal to not sound “harsh” to the native ear is one we should work toward and can achieve. One way to remove some of the frustration of that working on pronunciation can bring is to set aside set times for dedicated pronunciation practice. In these times, you will not concern yourself in the least with comprehension or communication. You are just working on training your tongue and your mind to the new sounds of the language. Don’t set aside a lot of time, but 5-10 minutes of dedicated work on the sounds of the language will really help you fine tune and give yourself a lot of focused practice with out the worry of feeling like you are not understanding everything. In linguists terms it will help reduce your “affective filter.” In some ways it is sort of like basketball. In junior high we did left handed lay-up after left handed lay-up in practice so that it soon became natural. When game time came around, it was more natural and I scored more points. Our tongues and minds need the same sort of repetition so that they too can begin to feel natural. Below is a link to some practice drills and other ideas that you can do in your focused pronunciation practice time with friend or language helper. 
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