Mostly sympathetic here, but your duolingo comment is a bit too harsh. Anecdotal counterpoint: my high-schooler used duolingo last summer to skip a year of instruction and get into AP Spanish as a junior, and got into the Spanish National Honors Society, and earned a fluency certificate. (I know most high school language classes churn out students who can't speak a lick, but her school is excellent and she has working fluency - which she credits largely to using duolingo to catch up.) IOW, YMMV.