My ATC airfield has no less than 6 Flying Training Organisations and handles over 80 000 flights per annum. A large proportion of these are student or low time PPL's. With this volume of traffic, bad, stumbly RT at the wrong moment can be irritating (to say the least) but my colleagues and I generally accept that you have to start somewhere!
Echoing Barnaby's point, I'd strongly recommend that you learn the RT thoroughly before you get in the aeroplane. It's not difficult! If you commit to memory the meanings of the Standard words and phrases together with the items which must be read back, you'll be ahead of the game. You can practice this anytime...driving to work, in the bath etc. etc. There's no point waiting until you're paying for your instructors time! Every day, I hear people wasting money by using 100% of their concentration, trying to talk to me in a simple, but slightly technical language while thy're supposed to be learning to fly. Great way to spend £1.50 a minute!
See if you can organise a visit to the Tower too. I think it's useful for pilots to see how things work 'from the other side' and meet some of the people you're actually talking to.
The 'us and them' thing is a bit of a myth. Most ATCO's will have done some flying during their training. Of the 7 controllers at my Unit, 3 (including me) are current and 1 is a lapsed PPL, so there is a degree of understanding. At the end of the day, I'm providing a service of which you are the customer. Your landing fees pay my wages!
Praise is always nice but CAP413 does recommend avoiding excessive use of courtesies....it's much better practice to send cream cakes, fine wines and single malt whiskies to the Tower! (however, in your neck of the woods, 'beer and tabs' will probably suffice
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