I've been having better luck with Babbel lately since it actually teaches ya stuff rather than throwing vocabulary at ya. I've learned more grammar in 2 weeks of Babbel than an entire 10 months learning Dutch on duo

I likes busuu a lot, felt a lot like old Duolingo, but with more relevant lessons. Duo can introduce potentially unhelpful vocabulary and grammar very early on, and now with the crown system every lesson just feels like pedantic repetition, busuu is fun, properly leveled, and has native speakers, with the Chinese course at least.

I'd be curious to hear which language you try and how it turns out for you since I've only done Chinese so far.

I can't stand the new layout with the crowns and hearts. Like you haven't learned something unless you've repeated it multiple times, it's disheartening to spend ten minutes in a lesson and get a nearly in discernible bump in a progress indicator.

And then the heart system is crazy, like you're only allowed to study if you don't make mistakes. That's negative reinforcement and makes the process of learning much less fun.

I can't really progress at the pace I want to anymore, it feels more like a mandated curriculum that only allows me to learn the way someone else thinks I should at the speed someone else thinks I should, which I don't think helps the learning process either.

Also, they've removed all of the fun shop outfits and items I can buy with those crystals, so you get the crystals for no reason, where you used to be able to dress up duo or, I can't even remember anymore, but there were tons of uses for those crystals. So now I have like 10,000 crystals and I can buy streak freezes exclusively with them?

I don't have fun learning with duo anymore, and there are plenty of apps that allow me to enjoy studying and learning at my own pace, regardless of how many mistakes I make in the process.