[apwell23]

I agree i can speak passable spanish with my wife's family. i learnt exclusively on duolingo.

I don't know if its the best way but it kept me motivated to come back and put in some work in a fun environment. which i belive is the biggest problem to solve for any sort of learning.

[degamad]

The suggestion is that it's likely that you did much of your learning from speaking to your wife's family, with duolingo giving you a kickstart and the confidence to do so.

Having conversation partner(s) to practice with generally trumps any other learning method for languages.