>>Quick? No way. And there are no rules, really.
>
>There are some, at least. I used to watch "Between the lions" on PBS, where they teach how to read.

And any seemingly logical conclusion you may make would just lead you into wrong analogies. Speaking of lions, I deduced the pronunciation of "dandelion" from "medallion". Wrong. It's "dandy lion" :).

>I am still wondering how to distinguish difference between bed bad bat or man men. I can not pronounce th and I usually say "when" the same as "then" or "than" Yesterday I was asking a teacher about my son's interaction with other kids and I had to repeat this word twice at least, because she heard "interruption" instead... Besides, I have some problems with "k" sound. That's just my own prononcuation (ouch, how to spell?) problem untreated in the young age I often have to explain that I have problems with this sound, when even in Russian I'm misunderstood.

At least you know you have a problem, and where - which is a start. I have a masked problem - I can talk with people for quite a while, and then get the nasty feeling at some point that they got me wrong, or didn't get me at all, but are too polite to ask me to repeat or clear up. And I have no idea where, how and what didn't get across. I only have a suspicion.