Learning to understanding the rhythm of English is the big game changer. Without getting too technical English has a different rhythm than most other languages: a fact that isn’t always taught in English Language Schools.
If you try to superimpose the rhythms of your mother tongue on English it will be hard for others to understand you because you’re not placing the emphasis where it is normally expected.
English rhythm is less regular than other languages. Most languages: Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish, Hindi, Malay and so on a fairly phonetic. The rhythm is regular and based on the distance between syllables. Linguists call this machine gun rhythm. English on the other hand is less phonetic and bases stress on the distance between the words that carry meaning. Linguists call this Morse code rhythm.
The important or content words carry the meaning of a sentence and are emphasised. The other words are called function words are there to hold the sentence together. These are contracted and de-stressed.