I'm learning with the help of a Udemy course called "El método", Duolingo and Spanishdict.
I started just recently so I don't know if I'm on the best path or even a decent one, but I feel like I'm making daily progress.
My problem with Duolingo is that I need more explanations of the grammar than it provides, but the Udemy course has me covered there.
What I find to be an interesting experience is using my second language (English) to learn a third one, as in my native language there are no good resources available.
I've been using Busuu for the last month or so and it has been pretty good thus far.
I really dislike Duolingo although still keep up my "streak" just to have another resource to add to my learning I guess. (To be honest I don't know why I'm carrying it on as my dislike only grows with time xD)
Also having a Spanish girlfriend I learn bits and pieces from her where I can.
Most of my learning is casual, I haven't been hitting it hard just trying to slowly learn what I can without paying for anything basically. Heading to Spain next month which should be interesting :D
Your GF is your best go-to resource over any application. Practice practice practice make mistakes with her who cares! It is the only way to learn. Spain will be awesome for you. I hope you enjoy it.
Oh yeah, absolutely! As I get better we say more things in Spanish and she corrects all the mistakes I make. I am struggling right now as I have just started taking on different tenses and I'm finding it rough, I was always more of a maths / science guy in school languages don't come easily to me xD
I started with anki to get some most basic words first. Right now I'm using etutor (something like duolingo AFAIK) and reading "Neuromante".
I know that this book is way out of my league but I decided that I prefer to grind through and read something that I want to read, instead of trying to read something I have no interest in. On some pages I have to translate every sentence but after ~25% I also started encountering pages where I don't have to translate anything. And that's very satisfying. I've also subscribed to a few other Spanish communities and it seems that I'm slowly starting to be able to understand articles on the internet
Today I've discovered language transfer and dreamingspanish and I think these might be worth a try. I'm going to give etutor more time but I'm afraid I'm starting to feel it might be slowing down my progress.
Currently I believe in small bursts of repetition and "organic" exposure every day instead of trying to cram as much grammar into my head as fast as possible. But I feel that I should be repeating sentences with various grammatical constructions, instead of "son las tres y media"
I'm also toying with an idea to pay for some online hours with a teacher to start speaking. But I think it might be too early for that.
Mi español es muy básico y creo que escuchando de mi hablando puede ser muy duro