I've been learning English on Duo for 1.5 years now and I feel like I'm making very slow progress.

Maybe try picking up a novel you might like. Then you can just save the words you’re most likely to use in conversations and try to memorise them (using Anki, for example). Oh, and try writing more about the things you like — it’s something I’m trying to do more of as well :)

Your English is very good, so you're definitely learning something. "Subsequent" is quite an advanced word, even for native speakers. If you're frustrated by the slow pace of progress, I've heard that Anki decks are a fast way to learn languages.

Do you have conversation partners? It sounds like you’ve learned a lot but you just need to put it in practice.

You can practice on [langsbook.com](http://langsbook.com) , with native speakers helping each other.

A free and fun way to improve English is through reading fanfiction

Duo is indeed a very slow way to practice a language. You need to take classes and talk to English speakers. You need to practice speaking… Even if no one is listening. You need to watch TV shows, and listen to music, and read books. And you need to practice talking even if no one is listening.

Nothing beats real conversation whether choosing a pro tutor or simply native speakers. That's the best way to actually improve. Try [italki](https://go.italki.com/rtsgeneral2)

The next step after Duolingo is always the hardest because it means you need to be more active in your self learning. Think about the four points of language learning: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Read an article, write a summary about it. Speak to a native speaker or one of the many AI bots available. Listen to a podcast. Do all of this actively, you have to be ready for the fact that it will not be easy without the comfort of Duolingo. Best of luck to you!

If I may make a suggestion, I took a class with greater Toronto language school in Canada. They cater to international students so if may be a good way to learn and sharpen your English language skills there. That's what I'd do personally.

There’s a free course here on the more spoken and idiomatic side of English http://Theenglishpod.com/offers/T2bLnor2/checkout Good luck!

DuoLingo is a great way to pick up the basics of a language, but it's not a one stop shop for language learning. It must be combined with other things. You need to start reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I highly recommend going over to r/language_exchange and getting a pen pal or just a friend to chat with. 我上六个月用多邻国学习中文，然后找那儿中文朋友。我学很多东西。

So a lot of the natives here aren't going to know how to learn a language as an Adult (which is understandable, they already know English), but here's what I've been having success with learning other languages. Anki is amazing for learning large amounts of vocabulary at the start of the language learning process. Typically, you want to find a 1,000 word frequency deck online and use that. The top 1,000 words end up being about 70-80% of all words used. After you finish that deck, you can start doing something called sentence mining. When you come across an obscure word in a sentence, you add that word to your deck so that you're getting words that are useful to you. If you don't want to watch Westerns, you don't need to know words that are often in them, at least for now. You might be good enough at English to try watching videos in English about learning Chinese, you might find some stuff that will help you. The most important thing is to watch/read a lot. Learning vocabulary is a good kickstart but you need to put in thousands of hours of just using English to get good.

I don't know if it's accessible in China, but Discord has many servers wherein you can have conversations with English speakers. You can even just stay there to listen to inure yourself to the various accents. I had 331 days in Duolingo, and I feel like my Spanish barely improved.

Overall it's probably time to put language to practice, so finding a speaking partner or tutor might be a logical next step. It will help you get needed communication practice. In the end of the day you learn language to communicate with people and nothing can help you get this skill as much as actually communicating with real people. Also you seem to get to Intermediate level and would need to expand your vocabulary now. DUO becomes less and less relevant at that point. You can try Wöör app. It helps you collect and makes exercises for words that relevant to your specific needs. [www.woor.app](http://www.woor.app) Good luck.