If you want to learn a language, Duolingo and similar apps are not the way to do it. I used to use an app (that I can't recall the name of anymore) which matched you with people you could talk to in the target language over voice or video, and in return, you could teach them another language you knew, usually English. I also attended local language learning communities where again you speak only in the target language. I remember going to one online for Latin as well which made it feel like a living rather than dead language. It worked very well.

I do like how Duolingo has a lot more engagement however, it's harder to do so with these language learning communities which can sometimes fizzle out, so maybe an app in the middle could work well, perhaps even a ChatGPT with voice input and output for learning your target language. I'll likely be adding more gamification features to my apps as well.