> Funnily enough, I don't even know what the
> hard "kh" sound in German and Russian is like,
> so I just answered no. But considering how I
> can't roll my "rr"s in Spanish and have a
> horrible accent for certain words in Chinese
> (a language I grew up speaking), I'm guessing
> not.
>
> Any hints as to what the "kh" sound is like?

The "kh" sound is basically a rough "k", held out a little longer. Even if you're not sure what's meant by it, I guarantee you've heard it before, and not just by foreign speakers.

I took German for a long time, and I never had any trouble with the "kh" sound (known in the IPA as /x/), or with its corresponding "soft" (palatal) version (/ç/), but the German R always gave me a lot of trouble - it's uvular. I can kind of get it if I try hard, but it's difficult and I can never tell if I'm doing it right. I need to hunt down some Germans and figure out exactly how to do it and what it's supposed to sound like. Then hopefully I'll get it. Spanish "r"s are so much easier!

Going off of what Howard said, the /ts/ never really gave me any trouble either. German also has /pf/, which is slightly harder, but not unbearably so. And the crazy German vowels are pretty easy once you figure them out.

-Eric Sleator