When I was a kid, they taught us to say words like "white" with that sound for the 'wh'. I thought it was rather odd, since nobody outside of English class ever said it that way.
Also, some English dialects (such as those in Ireland and Scotland) definitely still pronounce 'wh' that way, I refer to the following article for an overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_English_%E2%9...