Babbel is decent.
There are a ton of the coffee break podcasts (and other language podcasts) on spotify - a few of which are actually really decent.
Duolingo is terrible. I completed the Italian course on there, and guess what, I still couldn’t speak Italian competently.
There are a ton of words and phrases included in Duolingo that natives would never use. It’s overly “formal” if you will.
“Duolingo, a new free language-learning site, says it can help you learn a language for free while simultaneously using your learning exercises to translate the web .”
Their business model is quite smart actually, but it isn’t particularly aimed at helping you speak the language you desire, and, also why you get a load of random sentences like “the girl is a fish” or “The bear is on the sugar”.
Thank you. I will stay away from Duolingo.
Lmao