Comment on the following quotation:

I used to think that pronunciation is one of the most important factors in language teaching and to some extent I do still think so. However, one should not over- exaggerate it as some people do, especially phonetics teachers who force students to write down IPA symbols for hours which I do not think has a high value. I think it would be much more valuable to send the students abroad, i.e. to an English-speaking country, for at least one year compulsory. I think that this would help much more in this respect than learning symbols who are too abstract for most of the students. Besides, and probably unfortunately, in recent years there seems to be a tendency towards high tolerance of foreign pronunciations among native speakers of English. The native speaker you encounter in Britain will usually understand what you are saying as soon as you can get the pronunciation as 'good' as it doesn't change the meaning of what you intend to say and he will not comment or even criticize the pronunciation of foreigners.modern media make it even more difficult for learners of English to focus just on one accent. Whereas in the past you had to go abroad and usually adopted the pronunciation of that region you went to, it is now usually the case that students of English see one film in RP, followed by a movie in some sort of American English and so on and so forth, thus many speakers are uncertain of what to adopt to their own pronunciation and what not. So in the end it gets all mixed up or the speaker decides not to take over an accent at all and sticks with his own - foreign - accent. Which in turn could even be perfectly okay as long as it is understood by native speakers, although it may sound very odd indeed to his fellow students of English and of course to his teachers. In fact, non-native speaking teachers seem to be more critical of pronunciation than native speakers are. All in all, I think that pronunciation is still an important issues yet I do not know to what extent and I refuse to say that it is the most important one. The most important issue should still be to teach an English that can easily be understood by native speakers - otherwise there could be pupils who have a great pronunciation, but a huge lack of vocabulary and an inability to produce grammatically correct sentences.
Знаете, есть такой стишок
His English is wonderful.
He speaks very well.
His accent is perfect.
You really can’t tell that he isn’t a native of the USA.
He has only one problem –
He has nothing to say.
Так что произношение произношением, но и в голове что-то должно быть)))) )

I think that pronunciation is highly important. It can make a speaker feel more confident. He may sound better than he actually is. The sound is the first thing that is perceived by a listener. (compare s.b.'s looks) In the second instance the contents becomes important. I'd rather listen to a simple text (with grammatical mistakes) that is pronounced accurately than to a complicated story with a very thick (foreign) accent.
The sooner is taught the better. It's very difficult to learn the 'right' (between inverted comas because, as everybody knows, there are various nuances) pronunciation of a word when you've acquired it wrong. Different sounds produce different words and comprehension can go easily awry!Is it so difficult for the French or the Italians to pronounce the "h"? I don't think so... and even if it is one should try hard. In my opinion it's a matter of laziness and sloppiness, firstly on the part of the teacher and then on the part of the student when left alone to learn. Besides, I don't se why pronunciation cannot be taught from the very beginning. Is there anyone who can provide a reasonable answer to that?

Кассандра: the sooner is taught the better.
Тот случай, когда дословный перевод русской фразы приводит к полному искажению смысла.
It is important to learn to pronounce English sounds correctly when you begin to learn English.

On the whole, your comment is very clever.

Maria, I am sure the teacher is curious to hear your own opinion on the issue...