The subtleties of spelling and pronunciation in French can be difficult. For example, it took me a while to realize that “au-dessous” and “au-dessus” are not the same. They are in fact opposite (one means “below” and the other “above”). They look so similar that it’s easy to miss the single-letter difference. This pair of words strikes me as particularly difficult, because from the perspective of an American English speaker, the two are pronounced the same. In our language, we don’t have that nasal sound that distinguishes “dessus” from “dessous,” so to us they are both “dessoo.” Soooooo tricky.
I’m working on getting the nasal sound down, as well as the guttural R. Personally, I won’t be able to call myself fluent unless I master those sounds, though I do take consolation in the fact that most websites on the subject say, “Don’t worry if you can’t pronounce the language perfectly. It’s just part of your accent.” My old French teacher always used to say that I had “un joli accent américain” (a pretty American accent), which is, of course, better than an ugly American accent, and better than insisting on speaking English while in a French-speaking place. So, if a “pretty American accent” is the best I can ever do, I guess can live with that. But I’d still rather learn to speak French perfectly, because I’m a perfectionist, and that’s just the way it is.