It is not hard to learn Japanese pronounciation except for the 'r' sound. Here is the way it works: On a blank paper you make a grid and then starting at the right and writing down you write the vowel sounds one on each line: a, i, u, e and o. Move one column to your left and then write ka, ki, ku, ke and ko one to each line... next column wrtie sa, shi (si), su, se and so (You should now have three columns starting at your right hand side of the page and moving left. If you read the line with the a it should read (backwards from English) a ka sa... " sa ka a" ) continue doing this for ta, chi, tsu, te and to; na, ni, nu, ne, no; ha, hi, fu, he, ho; ma, mi mu, me, mo; ya .. yu .. yo; ra, ri, ru, re, ro; wa .. .. .. wo; n and you have the basic sounds of Japanese minus the consonants z j d b p and so on and the vowels they join with to make syllables.
Anyway, what I am saying is that you could learn the sounds for most of the expressions in the time you could figure out how to pronounce them.
Then I don't know your situation... but, learning Japanese starts with the polite words you would need to start a conversation or ask a question.
You have to start somewhere.
Excuse me == gomen kudasai. you want to ask a question of a person.
Excuse me == shitsurei itashimasu. You lost your head or are about to and you are excusing yourself.
Excuse me == gomen nasai. You bumped someone -- not seriously but enough that you need to say something.
Dozo osaki ni == you met someone at the door at the same time and offer to allow them to proceed first. You can sometimes just say 'dozo' and get your point across.
Here is the one with the tricky 'r' -- goenryo naku == you ask some one to make himself comfortable/ not to stand on ceremony.
Domo arigatou gozaimasu. == thank you very much
do itashimashite == you are welcome.
irasshai mase == what the sushi guys are saying when you enter "Come in!" It is a polite command.
Ogenki desu ka? == How are you? You are asking somebody.
genki desu. == I am fine.
nan desu ka? == what is it?
sore wa nan desu ka? what is that? points to a thing the other person has.
kore wa nan desu ka? what is this? something you have or hold.
Onamae wa nan desu ka? what's your name?
Watashi wa kurisu desu. I am Chris.
Dozo yoroshiku ... Please be good (to make my aquaintance).
ojigi == a bow. Something Japanese do a lot of. And, you should too if you are speaking it.
*** wa nihongo de nanto iimasu ka == How do you say *** in Japanese?
Sore wa dou iu imi desu ka == What does that mean?
If you are going to go on, you know, it would help you very much to start to learn the syllables of hiragana. These you should be able to write at will and by the time you can you should know how to pronounce each. I don't think it would take you long and there are many sites to show you how to write them.
More advice -- don't ask what time it is unless you know how to tell time in Japanese, etc.
moto yukkuri hanashite kudasai. == Please speak slower (I have never remembered to use it but it seems to be handy enough.)
sore o romaji de kaite kudasai Please write it in western style letters.
kore o hiragana de kaite kudasai. Please write this in hiragana.