Teach the sounds first

1. Learn IPA first — phonetic literacy!

Write with [ ]-brackets. Read what's in [ ]-brackets. [ ]-brackets say, These are the sounds -- they can be trusted. [ ]-brackets make you the scientist, the expert, the one who isn't guessing but actually knows. Always use [ ]-brackets to write actual pronunciations.
In the wild when you see text without [ ]-brackets, you must guess the sounds if you don't already know everything. Later!

This chart shows what your mouth actually does for each symbol. Print it on paper, two sided, to share with learners from any language, who lack a smartphone. Click on-line to enter the Teachionary memorizer, so you can hear and guess them all correctly soon.

Another way: the nine more drills that teach basic, intermediate, and advanced IPA, as single symbols, in syllables, then writing what you hear.

	tap the symbol	in a syllable	write it down
basic, universal sounds	1	2	3
intermediate, from English and Hindi	4	5	6
advanced, the rest plus some tones	7	8	9

You can soon read and write IPA.

(Future work, a first-year-reading curriculum in IPA alone, so you can become comfortable writing, reading aloud or quietly, getting information and fun and confidence.)

2. See the sound–letter mapping — unguessable! One letter is many sounds: a in cat, car, care, about. One sound is many letters: [f] in fun, phone, enough. Both ways at once. Rules are fun to invent but they are "lexical" -- full of exceptions. Look and see, but you don't need to memorize the whole map; just know it is there, and maybe remember a few examples to guess others by.

3. Learn words, with BOTH pronunciation and spelling. Guessing sounds (from the map!) is ok for now, but remember it IS a guess, so fix it after you finally hear it. Translation Graphs show the spelling WITH the pronunciation below, like my name:

Tom	Veatch
[tʰɑm]	[vič]

You'll find Translation Graphs like this both in English and with other languages like Hindi in Utterance of the Day which gives you a taste every day. PlayAlong plays give a whole dramatic play in English, or other languages to or from English, for you to read out loud with others in their parts, or by yourself alone.

Later you don't need to write IPA except to be clear with others, but you will just know what you are talking about, instead of guessing. IPA gets you over the hump into English literacy.