Duolingo uses too much translation and not enough real ear training or customisation to be effective. Translation agruably hampers fluency.
There is a method and book I used called Fluent Forever and I learned more Dutch before coming to live in NL over a few months than most people I've met who have lived there for many years. You can create immersion fairly trivially without being there physically...
Fluent forever (and their forthcoming app) works essentially like this:
- hearing and pronouncing new phonemes
- 600 words in contextual sentences (with native speaker audio and self chosen images), using spaced repetition, helping you to absorb vocab and basic grammar without learning it directly.
-continuing to build your own sentences and learn words while working occasionally with a tutor that you essentially employ to help you to get more words for flashcards and to speak in language for hours (italki is good for it).
- buy grammar books and look for some good examples to apply rules into sentences about your own life / story so you can absorb more core grammar without verb tables etc.
I did buy frequency dictionary, target language native dictionary, grammar books, some literature and access to audio books in target language
It's not free but not super expensive either. Time commitment of ideally an hour a day 7 days a week was hard part.
There is a method and book I used called Fluent Forever and I learned more Dutch before coming to live in NL over a few months than most people I've met who have lived there for many years. You can create immersion fairly trivially without being there physically...
Fluent forever (and their forthcoming app) works essentially like this:
- hearing and pronouncing new phonemes - 600 words in contextual sentences (with native speaker audio and self chosen images), using spaced repetition, helping you to absorb vocab and basic grammar without learning it directly. -continuing to build your own sentences and learn words while working occasionally with a tutor that you essentially employ to help you to get more words for flashcards and to speak in language for hours (italki is good for it). - buy grammar books and look for some good examples to apply rules into sentences about your own life / story so you can absorb more core grammar without verb tables etc.
I did buy frequency dictionary, target language native dictionary, grammar books, some literature and access to audio books in target language
It's not free but not super expensive either. Time commitment of ideally an hour a day 7 days a week was hard part.