Very good post, @etznab! I wish there were more blogs like this on this website. As to your topic, I'm glad that more and more foreign language courses (especially self-study ones) focus on aural comprehension and sound reproduction first, and only then delve into reading/writing. Basically, how a baby learns a language, just in a more accelerated fashion.
RE: You can't speak "whale", with your "english-speaking" face"