I tried to learn in, but I always fall back to my old habits since my right hand hurt otherwise. I don't think I will ever bother getting fast. It is probably way better to learn it properly from the beginning.
What worked for me was switching to dvorak. With no keycaps to match the layout, I had no option but to memorize it (initially with the help of a cheatsheet on screen). Conveniently, back then, I had no idea how to revert back to qwerty without restarting X after using xmodmap to switch layout, and I'm the type to not restart my session (or computer) except for updates every few months or so.
It also helps a lot doing this "at home" when you've nothing particularly important to do on the computer (running a basic touch typing tutor program for an hour or two and again later in the evening while just chatting away on IRC or such during the day is great because you're typing but have no real pressure). Not during work. It sucks struggling to get things done, and you're very likely to switch back to the old method and that'll just stall progress.
After one day, I had more or less memorized the layout but of course typing was still slow and somewhat frustrating. After a few days, it stopped feeling frustrating but was still a little slow. In a week or two I had reached or surpassed my original qwerty speed. I never used qwerty during that period, it was learn or bust.
I dunno. I don't have anywhere near 60 words per minute that are actually worth recording.
Ergonomic typing however, I guess is important. And I am bad at that. Looking down to find the keys might be a bad habit? I have almost trained that away.
News to me
...and from my understanding WhatsApp is very common in Europe, which can also be used from the web.
I don't really understand why properly trained typing is more ergonomic, anyway. If I keep my hands perfectly on the homerow, each letter is nearly the same exact motion. The way I type normally, my hands move around a bit, so there's a couple character history built into my motions. This seems to me like it ought to reduce the repetitive motions, which are what lead to repetitive strain injuries, right?
Maybe I stress my hands more while tryhard practicing touch typing than I would in normal use though.
Forcing myself to stop looking at the keys initially increased error rate to an unacceptable/demotivating level, but in a couple of weeks I was touch typing quite a bit faster than I could hunt and peck with no loss in accuracy.
Lesson one was learning A-S-D-F J-K-L-; and typing words and combinations on the home row, then we'd learn a few new letters each day. After that we had to learn how to use the tab function, address envelopes, and common forms for business letters. We were tested with "eyes on copy" typewriting where we didn't look at our hands.
(Other obsolete skills I learned in "Jr. High School" include how to set letterpress type, and Morse Code. I still use Morse Code today on amateur radio.)
Then a few years later as teenagers do in high school I choose typing class since all my friends did. So I learned more typing unusual for a guy at that time mid 1980s.
Then IRC when I got onto the Internet in the early 1990s. You had to type very fast to get in a jab or a joke before someone else did.
Now I'm in IT and typing is ubiquitous.