Musings on Language #2

[Sallera]

The Japanese ry- diphthongs are a classic. They're not outright impossible for an English speaker, but I hear the results of people trying to pronounce them without practice frequently at my karate classes. The teacher occasionally holds little sessions after class in an attempt to correct the students' pronunciation; success is rare.

Another one I've heard mentioned a fair bit (for native English speakers, at least) is the initial ng (such as in the Vietnamese Nguyễn). Awkward if you're not used to putting the sound at the beginning of a word; add the rest of the name and things get interesting.