Even at those levels there doesn't seem to be any reason why you wouldn't be better off putting your time into Dreaming Spanish https://www.dreamingspanish.com/

Even at those levels there doesn't seem to be any reason why you wouldn't be better off putting your time into Dreaming Spanish https://www.dreamingspanish.com/ https://www.dreamingspanish.com/ or Muzzy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzy_in_Gondoland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzzy_in_Gondoland , just to name some famously approachable beginner material. To be a bit cynical about it: the typical DuoLingo player has probably been misled to some extent about its effectiveness, yes, but also many of them don't particularly want to learn a new language. I suspect that they're happy to be able to play a popular mobile game that everyone else is also playing without the stigma of being a "Candy Crush addict" and "timewaster". "I'm learning a language!" is the welcome figleaf. https://youtu.be/F3SzNuEGmwQ?t=243 https://youtu.be/F3SzNuEGmwQ?t=243