> I still find words in English that I simply don't know how to pronounce. I can give them a try, but unless I've heard someone else say them, I have no idea.
...and even that isn't much of a problem if other people supply the correct pronunciation in a fun happy helpful way, instead of the sneering or sarcastic manner often used.
I'm a native English speaker who started watching movies and TV shows with the English subtitles turned on about 5 years ago, and in that time have found dozens of word pairs I thought were different, having only heard/spoken one word and read/written the other, but they were actually the same word. Just an idea.
...and even that isn't much of a problem if other people supply the correct pronunciation in a fun happy helpful way, instead of the sneering or sarcastic manner often used.