Kanji get all the love — and all the hate. They are generally considered the most difficult part of the Japanese language and, because of this, students have what Gregg Popovich, head coach of the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, has termed "appropriate fear": Students fear and respect kanji and therefore prepare appropriately to deal with them.
This appropriate fear may be missing with other aspects of the language, notably with speaking. Speaking Japanese, unlike kanji, is supposed to come to you by osmosis.
Obviously this is incorrect. As with kanji, the phrase 継続は力 (Keizoku wa chikara, "Continuity is power") applies to improving your accent and speaking ability. Applying repetition to speaking practice will help you sound more natural and bring phrases to your tongue more easily, and there are some tricks you can use to find this repetition more easily.