I've been using Babbel to learn Spanish. Anyone have suggestions for where to go after maxing resources like Babbel and Duolingo? I feel like I hit a wall somewhere and the next steps aren't so clear. Some of the steps the author used look helpful like changing phone language and heavy use of anki
Lingvist [0] has been useful to me for vocab building post-Duolingo. The mobile apps are thoughtfully designed -- you can use text or speech input fairly easily -- and they're rolling out (for Spanish and French so far; I'd expect German will come soon, but Russian seems to be a ways off) the ability to generate domain-inspired personalized courses using sample text you input. I'm mainly practicing my German right now, so I haven't tested it much, but this might be very powerful in combination with Project Gutenberg texts, etc. I also appreciate that they have Spanish courses for both Latin America and Spain.
Italki Italki Italki, nothing has been better for that. I use my flashcards I made on Quizlet, listen to videos/podcasts, re-practice Duolingo, etc., but 3-6 hours per week talking to native Speakers on Italki (or any equivalent service) will work wonders.
I think reading young adult books is one of the best bangs for the buck early on. Most people agree that they procrastinated it for too long because they thought it would be too hard, myself included.
Bonus) Play a MUD in Spanish. http://www.balzhur.org/ is the biggest one I know of with 10-25 people online. It's a 1-to-1 translation of Realms of Despair. Even if you are too bad at Spanish to interact with people, it's a fun interactive way to get used to common verbs. And you can go at your own slow pace, reading the description of each room.
