I agree those words are difficult to pronounce. For example: 連絡　混乱

I find it easier to pronounce them if I think of the r as a l in those cases. I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do, though.

Before r?  The ん nasalizes the proceeding vowel, but isn't actually pronounced like the English n.  Like the n in the French "bon."

The only way to really get solid pronunciation is to listen and practice.  A lot. 

関連のセクションへ連絡した。
かんれんの　せくしょんえ　れんらく　した。
http://smart.fm/explore/sentences?conte … mp;limit=5

店員（てんいん） is a good word to study, too.  Two ん, no "n."
http://smart.fm/explore/sentences?keywo … 7%E5%93%A1

So, how is ん really pronounced? 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_p … raic_nasal has the technical details, but really all you have to do is pay attention to the different contexts in which ん is found:

-- At the end of an utterance 「すみません」
-- Before b, p, or m 「散歩」
-- Before t, d, or な-row n 「判断」「電脳」
-- Before k or g 「部分が」「なんか」
-- Before vowels, y, w, h, s, or r 「訓練」「千円」「店員」
-- Before z 「安全」

Don't worry too much about it though, though.  Listen and imitate.  Listen and imitate and good pronunciation follows.

wildweathel wrote:

-- At the end of an utterance 「すみません」
-- Before b, p, or m 「散歩」
-- Before t, d, or な-row n 「判断」「電脳」
-- Before k or g 「部分が」「なんか」
-- Before vowels, y, w, h, s, or r 「訓練」「千円」「店員」
-- Before z 「安全

"r" should be in the "t, d, n" row

yudantaiteki wrote:

人 as "he-to"

Really? The sound of ひ in words like 人 and 必要 really struck me pretty immediately. In my japanese class (I take it at college for the minor to be on paper ), everyone, even the teacher (who is actually an indian woman, not a native japanese) pronounces it incorrectly. It's always onna no heeto.

If any of you don't have enough listening to know what I'm talking about: when you listen to the word 女の人 or 必要, the ひ in them isn't pronounced hi/hee... it almost sound like し, but it's more of a whispered sound.

I try to just be as mindless about it as possible, just listen and mimic. Most of the time, the physical discomfort of something like 訓練 makes me think about it, and the more I think about it, the harder it is. A lot of those words I just had to be slow and deliberate in my mimicry, then proceed from there to adjust, making the end of the first syllable softer, being more forceful with the beginning of the second, then speeding it up. Hope that makes sense--obviously just using 訓練 as the example.

sethg wrote:

If any of you don't have enough listening to know what I'm talking about: when you listen to the word 女の人 or 必要, the ひ in them isn't pronounced hi/hee... it almost sound like し, but it's more of a whispered sound.

I found this massively confusing for the longest time. "あのしと"？ なに？ It eventually dawned on me from context and experience, but sethg's post is the first time in many years of (sporadic self-) study I've seen it mentioned, let alone explained.

yudantaiteki wrote:

If you don't read some explanation you may not realize what you are hearing....I didn't realize what I was doing until I finally read a description of the Japanese pronunciation structure.

Exactly. I'm going to be doing some reading on the Japanese pronunciation structure soonest. Of course, I'm very up to speed with English pronunciation, and I still have this same problem with English words I've read but not heard...

greg_225, it`s not difficult to pronounce. The reason is that you are using English "N" sound to pronounce Japanese word. English sounds are much milder and smoother compared to other languages.
Katsuo, explained how to produce harder "N" farely well. If you try to imitate russian accent in english, you`ll get the idea of how it should sound.