I firmly believe it's important to learn a spoken language before learning the written language, assuming your goal is to become fluent. Learning through trans

I firmly believe it's important to learn a spoken language before learning the written language, assuming your goal is to become fluent. Learning through translation is also an anti-pattern. Best to learn the basics of the target language then bootstrap your understanding of the more complicated bits by breaking them down to the basics. I can understand the time benefit to learning through reading and translation, but I can't help but think it's a path to mediocre reading skills and poor speaking skills at best.