[dynamicdox]

I have had the same experience as you. Duolingo in particular I think provides a false sense of progress, as it can be somewhat of a guessing game that is pretty easy. What I have found the best is to use a flash cards type app, creating different categories: verbs, adjectives, nouns, etc. after all, a lot of learning a language is memorization. Supplementing this with watching tv with subtitles has proven to be pretty effective for me, but of course as you say, nothing is better than being in a place and speaking the language every day.

[auxbuss]

After Duolingo, I've been using clozemaster (for Spanish). I paid the USD 40 pa for the audio version. I type responses rather than answer via multiple choice. It's a lot more challenging than Duolingo, and I've learned a _lot_ more vocab.

I don't think language is about memorization so much as it becoming part of your zombie mode, as the learning folks like to call it. Kind of a innate understanding.

Other sites I've used:

* yabla [1] for listening comprehension

* lang-8 [2] for writing

newsinslowspanish [3] do a free podcast of the first 10-15 minutes of each of their shows. Reading Spanish news' sites helps; most have additional videos these days. I read EuroNews in Spanish. They also have an app.

Of course, there's tons of stuff on YouTube.

[0] https://www.clozemaster.com/ [1] https://www.yabla.com/ [2] http://lang-8.com/ [3] https://www.newsinslowspanish.com/