[Firebird]

Well if youve met some Japanese speaking english than you will know how most gaijin will sound speaking japanese. Meaning that even if your pronounciation is not to good, if they try hard enough they will understand you.
You should raise your voice at the end of a question (raise at the "ka").

I also think its good to use a recording to practice you speaking because otherwise you might learn something wrong and than its hard to correct later. Actually hearing alot of Japanese, as in subtiteled animes will help you. This might sound weird, but you get used to the language and after a while you get around even pronouncing words you didnt hear before.

And after all, like stated above, Japanese is pretty straightforward, so if someone doesnt understand you, you can pronounce it syllable by syllable. Korean or Chinese are much more difficult because they are more tonal languages.