Do You Know the Basics?

Something I read recently in Scott H. Young’s blog:

„I knew someone who was enrolled in a college Spanish class. The class was divided into sixteen weeks, one for each verb conjugation. Most of the time, the most common three or four conjugations are all you really need. What’s the point of studying the pluperfect subjunctive if you can’t speak in the present tense without hesitation?“

This is something I truly believe, too.

I had ten years of French at school and later at college. I read Maupassant, Gide and Marivaux.

But I’m still not able to hold a decent conversation in the language.

Why do we learn those complex structures and tenses if we haven’t yet mastered the simple ones?

What are your thoughts on this?