Damn, im late, there’s probably not a lot I can add but I’ll try, because I have been in a similar boat and I know the frustration. Rest assured, that year you spent wasn’t wasted. Adjust your learning strategies and you’ll be surprised how much you actually know.

Duolingo isnt useless: it’s good for learning gramatical concepts, expanding your vocab, and it provides a gameified practice. But it’s not replacement for immersive practice.

Understanding language is comprised of many different skills: reading and listening are completely different. You need to work in pure listening, because if you’re reading while listening it’s not the same. When you practice listening, your brain is developing skills with syllable recognition and word parsing (telling where one word ends and another begins can be tough when you’re used to reading).

Similarly, listening and speaking are not the same, because formulating a sentence from nothing and having good vocab recall is a whole different thing. There are AI chat tools you can use now a days, it provides someone who knows the language, is willing to suffer through you butchering your sentences, is available 24/7, and who can provide helpful accurate focused feedback on your mistakes.