parlevoufrançai?

Yesterday I realized part of why the French don't understand me when I talk to them in French- I talk too fast.

One of the most common French expressions is "Je ne sais pas," which means "I don't know."
My first professor pronounced it, "jun say pah." (with the j making more of a z sound than English, but you get the idea) My new professor pronounces it, "Ju neh say pah." Today I learned that both of them pronounce it slowly and clearly in class for the sake of us beginners. Out on the street, most French people say something that can best be replicated like this:

Shspa

To them, that makes total sense. Not because it's logical, but because that four word written phrase has turned into one really short spoken word that they all learned as babies. I think a lot of French is that way. And that is part of why, when I say a sentence one word at a time (even with the prescribed word mushing dictated by their rules of pronounciation), I get blank stares. They probably haven't heard it said that way in years, if ever.

Worse, I try to fit in better with the French by saying things quickly. Thus, I always say "Jun say pah" rather than "Ju neh say pah." But if I half-mush something that they whole-mush, it doesn't quite sound like either the original proper sentence or the whole-mushed sentence, so they are even less likely to recognize it.

But still, the main problem is mispronunciation. In church this week I asked a young guy, "Tu habite où?" A super short question. Straight out of our book. I pronounced it clearly. And he obviously had no clue what I said. I have said the exact same thing to teachers, students, all kinds of people around the school and never had any problem whatsoever. But now that I think about it, I realize that all along I have been pronouncing it too American. Too-ah-bee-too. The consonants and mushing are fine, but the first "oo" is supposed to sound like the german ü and the second "oo" is supposed to sound like I got punched in the stomach. At this point my memorized phrases and my phonetic knowledge have not mingled much. I have to convert memorized phrases into written words in my head, then analyze how they are spelled in order to figure out how to pronounce them. Hopefully with time I will get a better ear for proper pronunciation and pick it instinctively. If only French didn't have so many different OOish and UHish sounds...