How difficult is German?

Krkrkrk   Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:26 am GMT
I'm fluent in English and Bulgarian, and I know some French. How difficult would it be for me to learn German?
a demotivator   Sat Dec 05, 2009 5:06 am GMT
Hard enough not to bother. Take drugs instead.
In my opinion   Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:50 am GMT
Difficulty:


1. English and Spanish

1.b French, Italian, Portuguese

2. German

2.b Russian

3. Arabic

4. Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Thegreatseph   Sat Dec 05, 2009 4:50 pm GMT
I took German for 3 years in school, and while formal classes seem one of the worst ways to learn, I can at least speak the basics.

German has enough words similar to English in it's basic and simple words to learn quickly, once you start to get more advanced you will lose your point of reference as English switches to romance inspired words.

It doesn't seem hard at all to get a basic understanding, but mastering it seems quite difficult. People can understand what I say, but I frequently cannot remember the proper plural, or if I should use an article, or the gender of a noun.

Now, if one were motivated to learn German then one should learn it. People tend to have great difficulty learning languages they do not have motivation to learn, and that was my problem with German. The fact of the matter was while I enjoyed some German music (Blutengel, L'Âme Immortelle, etc) that was were my interest ended, and you need a healthy interest in the culture and the language in order to be successful.
marcellus minimus   Sat Dec 05, 2009 8:37 pm GMT
It's sometimes said that German is like "English on steroids", in terms of complexity, difficulty, etc.
li9   Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:31 am GMT
Why does someone have to bother learn German??
Guest   Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:06 am GMT
Because people who don't speak German will be killed by the IV Reich.
Wa   Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:00 am GMT
If you know English quite well, German is not that hard.
Both languages belong to West Germanic group.
K. T.   Sun Dec 13, 2009 4:27 am GMT
Do you LIKE German? If you do, it won't be too difficult. Motivation is a lot in language learning, almost more than natural talent in some cases.
*   Sun Dec 13, 2009 6:32 am GMT
German is not only harder than English, but also harder than Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch, that's to say, no doubt German is definitely the hardest one among Germanic languages.
just me   Sun Dec 13, 2009 9:40 am GMT
German is not harder than English, I have learnt both and I have to say that the English grammar is a bit more confusing to me. German is one of the most logical languages ever...German morphology is undeniably more complex than the English one, that's a fact
mim   Sun Dec 13, 2009 2:33 pm GMT
Icelandic is harder and more conservative than German, particularly morphology
eu   Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:38 pm GMT
Even Faroese is more difficult than German, morphologically
Dfens   Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:53 pm GMT
Don't fool around "just me", there's no such thing as logic in German language and it's definitely much harder than English for sure...

btw I'm a native speaker of German.
Baldewin   Sun Dec 13, 2009 11:06 pm GMT
It often depends on the jargon and sociolect whether a language is difficult or not. Also German would be a lot easier if it had the position English enjoys today, complex morphology or not.
Also most Anglophones today are used to hearing rudimentary Basic English.