If I could change one thing about Duolingo, it would be to allow the user to turn off all the gamification completely. I don't care about fake internet gems, knowing how to speak Chinese (or whatever) is it's own reward, so stop wasting my time with bs!

Nevertheless, Duolingo is an amazing and convenient starting point for unlocking the learning of new languages.

Make your way through the entire course as fast as you can, while also listening to music, talking to people, talking to chatGPT, reading books, etc in the target language as soon as you can manage.

Protip: learn your 3rd language using your second as the language of instruction.