My wife and I have been studying Chinese casually for a couple of years now and I have been using Chinese Pod for almost a year.  It is very slow going, but I plan on keeping at it. 

I liked the elementary lesson, "The Panda's Secret Wish" and worked on it for the last week until I could say it to a Chinese co-worker.  The roughest spots were that she could not understand "yuan" of "yuan wang" (wish) and "cai" of "cai se" (color).  It was extremely frustrating as I tried to repeat each of these from her corrections but never got them right.  I cannot understand from her explanations what I am doing incorrectly.  The "yuan" seems to be the oo sound and not the inflection, which I'm pretty sure I'm getting right.  The "cai" she says sounds too much like "zai".  I am thinking "ts" and it sounds to me like I'm softer than "dz" but obviously I'm not getting it.

Any specific help on pronouncing these two words would be much appreciated and if there are resources for just getting better at pronouncing words, I would also appreciate that.

真灵啊！
Zhēn líng a！

一对夫妻来到一口许愿井旁。
Yī duì fūqī láidào yīkǒu xǔyuàn jǐng páng.

丈夫弯腰，许了个愿后往井里扔了一枚硬币。
Zhàngfu wānyāo，xǔ le ge yuàn hòu wǎng jǐnglǐ rēng le yī méi yìngbì.

妻子也想许愿，但她弯腰时不小心翻入井里。
Qīzi yě xiǎng xǔyuàn，dàn tā wānyāo shí bù xiǎoxīn fānrù jǐng lǐ.

丈夫惊呆了，然后笑着对自己 说：“真灵啊！”
Zhàngfu jīngdāi le，ránhòu xiào zhe duì zìjǐ shuō：“zhēn líng a！”

真靈啊！
Zhēn líng a！

一對夫妻來到一口許願井旁。
Yī duì fūqī láidào yīkǒu xǔyuàn jǐng páng.

丈夫彎腰，許了個愿后往井里扔了一枚硬幣。
Zhàngfu wānyāo，xǔ le ge yuàn hòu wǎng jǐnglǐ rēng le yī méi yìngbì.

妻子也想許願，但她彎腰時不小心翻入井里。
Qīzi yě xiǎng xǔyuàn，dàn tā wānyāo shí bù xiǎoxīn fānrù jǐng lǐ.

丈夫驚呆了，然後笑著對自己說：“真靈啊！”
Zhàngfu jīngdāi le，ránhòu xiào zhe duì zìjǐ shuō：“zhēn líng a！”

夫妻/ fūqī / couple
许愿井/ xǔyuàn jǐng / wishing well
弯腰 / wānyāo / to stoop
许愿 / xǔyuàn / to make a wish
扔 / rēng / to throw
硬币 / yìngbì / coin
翻入 / fānrù / to fall into
惊呆 / jīngdāi / to be stunned
灵 / líng / efficacious