@just_chill

@futurebird I have already seen a lot of good advice and I don't have any myself because I started the IPA to learn english (and it's really useful for that !). I guess you could learn broader concepts of anatomy and pronunciation first ? Then you'll be able to read the chart and understand what a "retroflex voiceless plosive" is.

Also keep in mind that not every phonetic translation has all of the possible fine little details. I worked with recording of children speech and we kept the phonetic transcription very simple because we weren't actually studying phonetics. My point is, I don't think a lot of people are absolute masters of the entirety of the thing, most are only fluent in the things they need often and know how to look up the rest.
Practice makes perfect and transcribing recordings is the best exercise I ever found.