I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and I have no clue what you are talking about with regard to the pronunciation of Jose. http://www.forvo.com/word/jos%C3%A9/ The Spanish you learn in a midwestern Spanish class is going to sound markedly different from the Spanish you'll hear in most Spanish communities. I don't doubt that, but listening to native Spanish speakers at the link I provided, I would still say that "Ho-say" is the closest English phonetic representation. If the argument is simply that Spanish pronunciation can't be represented 100% accurately using English phonetics, then I guess I see where you are coming from.