Starting with Duolingo might be OK, but it’s very bare-bones and unlike the real deal of having thoughts in a language and then expressing yourself. In fact, I recommend not using it after you have a rudimentary grasp of the language.
Try entering full sentence-to-sentence cards in Anki. At first, you won’t be able to write good sentences on your own, so use a sentence-search service for that (I don’t remember what they’re called, but at the least you can use the example wordreference sentences). Over the course of a year, I input all the thoughts I’d had that day which I couldn’t translate. By learning to produce words in-context instead of memorizing the multilingual dictionary, I began to run out of additions to the Anki deck. That exercise gave me near-fluency, which has persisted to this day.
So, I think Anki is suited for nearly everything except oral skills. Plus, spaced repetition saves time.
Also, you might try an app like Tandem. If you’re single, try learning to be interesting in the foreign language—it’s naturally motivating, and both of you can chalk up any awkwardness to mistranslation. :)
Starting with Duolingo might be OK, but it’s very bare-bones and unlike the real deal of having thoughts in a language and then expressing yourself. In fact, I recommend not using it after you have a rudimentary grasp of the language.
Try entering full sentence-to-sentence cards in Anki. At first, you won’t be able to write good sentences on your own, so use a sentence-search service for that (I don’t remember what they’re called, but at the least you can use the example wordreference sentences). Over the course of a year, I input all the thoughts I’d had that day which I couldn’t translate. By learning to produce words in-context instead of memorizing the multilingual dictionary, I began to run out of additions to the Anki deck. That exercise gave me near-fluency, which has persisted to this day.
So, I think Anki is suited for nearly everything except oral skills. Plus, spaced repetition saves time.
Also, you might try an app like Tandem. If you’re single, try learning to be interesting in the foreign language—it’s naturally motivating, and both of you can chalk up any awkwardness to mistranslation. :)