Quote (Edgard @ 8 Apr 2016 18:05)
How hard would it be for me to learn German? I speak English and Spanish fluently, and speak quite a bit of French.
I've heard German is easier to pick up if you're a native English speaker.
As someone who also started german while being fluent in both spanish and english, I can tell you it's not easy. The grammar is really complicated and it's hard to get the noun genders right (which, to make it even more complicated, they have 3 unlike the standard female/masculine from most other languages, like spanish, french, etc). And while there are similar words to english (and even spanish, because they have quite a bit of words derived from latin, especially when it comes to more technical/rare/formal words), most of the words aren't similar at all. Most german words that share their roots with their english counterparts barely have any similarities nowadays (for example "heaven"/"Himmel"), although you also get a bunch of stuff like "mother/Mutter" or "brother"/"Bruder" that helps.
The good thing is that the grammar rules, while complex, don't have many exceptions (unlike english), which makes it easy for you to avoid mistakes once you get the grasp of them. There are also some tricks to help you remember the noun genders too, but these aren't solid rules for the most part. Pronounciation is pretty straightforward aswell imo (especially since you know some french, which has a wide variety of vocal sounds). And, like I said, there are still a good deal of words that bare similarites with english and latin.
Overall, I think it's very hard, but with patience and dedication you can learn it. Making yourself understandable isn't all that hard, mastering the language and not sounding like a caveman requires a lot of practice though.
Personally, after 5 years of german (I was 15), I got to a point where I could understand movies (although not every detail) without subs, and I spent 2 weeks in a german summer camp where I could only speak german, and I was fine for the most part. Now it's rusty as fuck and I've forgotten a lot of stuff, but I feel like I'd pick it up in no time if I spent a month in Germany.
This post was edited by zarkadon on Apr 8 2016 02:13pm