(TL) - Hitting the Hard Wall

Hello, fellow language learners.

Honestly, I don't know how or where to begin. So let's start from the beginning.

In 2009, I took a year-long English language course in Connecticut, USA. The program was called "ESL," which stands for "English as a Second Language." I had about 25 hours of English instruction per week, and this lasted for 9 months. After that, I returned to my country and never had the opportunity to go back to the United States.

After returning to my country and learning that I wouldn't be able to go back to the United States (because my father went bankrupt during the crisis and we had no money), I became very worried. What if I forget English?

So, I shifted the entire focus of my life towards English. At that time, there wasn't much digital media content, but I bought books, tried to talk to tourists in tourist areas as much as possible, and even worked in hotels for half the price.

When internet use became widespread, I joined online chat rooms. Then the Skype and Discord era began, and I met and constantly chatted with foreign people there as well.

But none of these were enough to bring my English to the level I wanted. I don't know if it's become a habit, but I struggle a lot when talking to people and forming sentences. I have no difficulty understanding what I read and hear (I don't even use subtitles), but as I said, I have difficulties with producing language.

I attended two or three English courses in my city, but I didn't see much effect because none of the teachers were native speakers and their curricula were exactly the same as the education I received before.

So I turned to mobile applications. I tried a few popular apps, which I don't want to name now, but they were mostly based on "choosing options" and memorization, so they didn't help me. Now I've found a new app. I won't give its name either (because I'm a new member of this subreddit and I don't want to seem like I'm advertising), but it looks good. In short, it teaches you the language through reading books. It helps in the process of producing language, not through traditional memorization methods.

TL;DR: Despite my approximately 17-year journey of learning English, I still don't see myself at the C1 level. What should I do?