En réponse à Yoon Ha Lee <yl112@...>:
>
> <despair> You mean all that time my French teacher was nitpicking over
> the difference between the two, they were going away anyway? Mon
> Dieu...
>
I suppose everyone who is learning a foreign language has some equivalent
experience. It depends on the age of the teacher in my opinion. My own
experience about that was with Spanish: I began to learn Spanish with a 25-to
-30-year-old woman who always pronounced ll /j/. When I changed school my new
teacher of Spanish was nearly 50, and with her I had to pronounce ll /l_j/! I
still wonder how young Spanish people (of my age: 25 or so) pronounce ll...
> Sometimes I really wonder if the language that I learn in the classroom
> is going to be any good for communication with Real People who are L1
> speakers of that language.
>
At least it's better than knowing nothing of their language. It gives you a
basis with from which you can improve your knowledge of their language. However
bad they are, I don't think foreign languages classes can ever be completely
useless.
Christophe.