[whyowhy3484939]

That's bad news for the millions that had to do just that and learned fine in fact better. I'm not saying you should read the Upanishads in the original, I'm saying a proper intro textbook is fine and some teacher-figure ("human") to actually use your body and read theirs.

Heck, Latin even has a Latin-only method: LLPSI. "Roma in Italia est", you'll figure it out quickly enough.

[watwut]

As someone who had to learn languages from textbooks back when it was the only thing that existed, it was massively ineffective way of learning.

The typical outcome was a person who spent a lot of effort and still was unable to do anything useful with the language after years (reading real book, watching movie, chatting).

[whyowhy3484939]

Notice I included interaction with people, but you're right. I think just using books is about equal to just using apps. Both won't get you there but books will get you further along the way.

[pjc50]

Humans are (very) expensive and Duolingo is free if you can put up with the advertising.