>>12
>We were never taught exactly how 'y' sounds in German
Exactly like an U-Umlaut in most words. The only exception I can think of is when it's in front of another vowel, like in the name 'Yasmin', where it "melts" with the 'a' into a sound like 'ja' (saying the u-Umlaut very quickly in those words gives more or less the same result, actually.)
I'd say you're very good for a beginner. You do get at least one kind of 'ch' right (the ch in Deich doesn't sound the same as in Tuch or Bach, for example), which tends to be very difficult for Americans. You get the 'r' right too, although you stress it very heavily, but don't worry about that too much.
You don't, however, make a difference between the O, U and their respective Umlauts. Here's how to make them:
for 10 seconds or so, make the sound of a German 'e'. While humming that sound, very slowly move your mouth towards the position of the 'u/o' sound, respectively. Somewhere in the middle, you should be producing the U/O-Umlaut sound. Then check with a recording spoken by a native whether you got it right; vorleser.net offers free German audio books spoken by professional voice actors.
Also, your voice doesn't sound weird at all.