DanielW wrote:
I've used duolingo and rosetta stone. My fluency got to be passable with both. My problem was not having anyone to converse with. With no practical use, I forgot a lot fairly quickly.
That's a common thing, although it is worth realizing that reading and listening are pretty much key to the process anyways. It's great if you've got the opportunity to converse with somebody, but most of the actual language learning comes from the input.
You don't generally forget all of it unless you go a very long time without using it. I remember my Chinese coming back when I hit the border and managing to get myself to the school I was going to work at on my own even though I hadn't done much with the language in the meantime.
Personally, I've gotten curious about AI chatbots as a method of practicing.