So it's easy to be a trained phonetician

I still think you can do it without taking a class. There are plenty of podcast lectures and a bunch of MP3 files, etc. The OED uses the IPA for its pronunciation guide. English has about 40 phonemes. Take a look at the charts on this page. 8 of the 24 consonants don't occur in our alphabet. I'd say you know at least 4 of them. Of the fourteen monophthong vowels, four are in our alphabet. We're talking about learning four consonants and ten vowels. And you already speak English. Look at those characters, listen to some MP3 files, and I'd say you can do it in an afternoon. Far less time than participation in this thread.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.