It probably depends on what they mean by "real money". I make a very comfortable living writing Perl code, and have for most of the last nine years. I'm not the most expensive developer out there, and I don't try to be. I get to spend all day doing exactly what I love to do with exactly the tools I choose, and I get paid enough to pay my bills and spoil my wife. That's basically heaven on earth.

There are several languages out there that I've only used as hobby languages, and even they have people who are paid to work with them. REBOL and Pike are the first that come to mind, but there are many others. The thing is, these small "niche" languages have people who enjoy using them and get paid to do so.

I believe you can find a job if you love a language and learn it well. Please learn others, though. Learn C so you can gain insight into systems programming. Learn Scheme so you can see what a minimalistic language looks like. Explore and learn everything that interests you, because the world of programming languages is a buffet for the curious mind. And shame on your teachers for telling you that learning something is a waste of time.