I found Tongue position essential. In my native english, my tongue rests, withdrawn on the bottom of my mouth. In Filipino, i find i need to have my tongue pancaked, and standing proud, resting on my lower teeth. This makes it ready to flipped R's but just generally i found it easier to slip into the accent. When I went there, I often noticed that you could see the tip of a persons tongue as they listened / waited. I try to make most sounds from this resting position, the accent comes much easier then.