They are close relatives: Both are "germanic languages" which have their common roots going deeply down other languagages like e.g. Sanskrit. You can track down many words like "father" ("Vater" in German, "Pater" in Latin, ...) within this relationship.



Also the grammar is not that different, although there are some significant differences, it follows the same basic rules, compared to languages arising from other families like Chinese.



So, even if I translate word by word, for example the scentence "Dies ist in Satz in richtigem Deutsch" would give "This is a scentence in correct German" sometimes gives correct translations and most of the time something you still can understand.



So, yes, being fluent in another language is hard, and no English is not that hard for Germans. ;)

As it seems, it's easier to learn english for germans than learning german for americans.



Es scheint für Deutsche ist es einfacher englisch zu lernen, als für Amerikaner deutsch zu lernen.



:)

Es ist definitiv schwerer Deutsch zu lernen als Englisch. Das kommt davon, dass die deutsche Sprache 4 unterschiedliche Fälle kennt, jedes Substantiv ein Geschlecht besitzt, die Satz-Stellung sehr flexibel ist...

Im Gegensatz dazu ist Englisch trivial.



It's definitely harder to learn German than English. Because of the fact that the German language has 4 different cases, each noun has a gender, the word order is very flexible ...

In contrast, English is trivial.

I think German is more difficult to learn as a foreign language than English because the grammar is more complicated. But then English spelling is a bit of a pain really, isn't it?! I think German spelling is easier once you know the rules. However, seeing as German and English are related languages, it's presumably easier for German students to learn English than a totally unrelated language. Alot of Germans seem to do reasonably well anyway.



In German:



Ich glaube, dass Deutsch als Fremdsprache schwieriger zu lernen ist als Englisch weil die Grammatik komplizierter ist. Aber die englische Rechtschreibung ist ein bisschen doof, oder?! Ich denke die deutsche Rechtschreibung ist einfacher, wenn man die Regeln kennt. Aber da Deutsch und Englisch verwandte Sprachen sind ist es wahrscheinlich einfacher für deutsche Studenten Englisch zu lernen als eine nicht verwandte Sprache. Viele Deutsche scheinen auf jeden Fall recht gut damit klar zu kommen.

English has a larger vocabulary than German.



But on the other hand, in Germany so many English words are used that even a beginner usually will know already a lot of words.

And English grammar is rather easy to learn.



Das Englische hat einen größeren Wortschatz als die deutsche Sprache. Aber andererseits sind in Deutschland so viele englische Wörter im Gebrauch der Alltagssprache, dass auch ein Anfänger im allgemeinen bereits viele Wörter kennt.

Und die Grammatik im Englischen ist recht leicht.

English is one of the easiest languages to learn

During the last decades, the English language had a huge influence on German language. People almost automatically grow up with a few English words which are used quite extensively and s lot of English pop music is heard around here, more than in any other country, I presume. So you already get acquainted with English from birth. It depends on which generation you look at, of cause.

As already mentioned here, both languages have a lot in common, as they come from the same Germanic lineage in many ways, so the effort to learn it isn't that big compared to other languages and English often has a much simpler structure as German, e.g. 'der, die, das', the genders and all those cases even Germans often have their problems with. But you need to learn your vocabulary like anybody else in the world who wants to learn a foreign language. There are also a lot of people who learn Latin here and a lot of words in both languages stem from Latin.

I wouldn't say, though that someone who comes from Southern Germany has it easier to learn the language. The Northern German dialects, called Low German, have much more in common with English than other dialects in Germany, but they are seldomly used today.

People from the Netherlands have the least problems with English, as Dutch has even got more in common with English and the Dutch don't have all their English tv-programmes and movies dubbed, unlike us Germans have, and the relations between the UK and the Netherlands were vaster in the past couple of centuries.



So it's quite easy to learn English for us Germans compared to other non-Germanic languages. But more than that, a lot of people who travel a lot even know a few words in other European languages, because compared to America, everything is just around the corner. You can just hop in a plane and there are dozens of countries with different languages within one hour reach. From the place where I live, I can easily reach the Netherlands and Belgium by car, three hours tops and you're in Belgium, one hour for the Netherlands. And all those countries grow together, you can't see borders and checkpoints anymore between a lot of countries, it's quite fascinating. And Germans in general really tend to travel a lot and English is the first foreign language everywhere, the modern 'lingua franca', so it's quite useful to learn it. I think it's somehow comparable to those people living closer to the southern border in the US. More and more people are learning Spanish or at least know a few words here and there.

But I have to admit, the average German mustn't necessarily speak English fluidly. You learn it at school, but you constantly need to keep it active by using it. I think the Dutch and also people from scandinavic countries have a much better proficiency in English. As already mentioned, in Germany every teeny tiny bit of English is dubbed. All the other countries with Germanic languages simply use subtitles or nothing at all.



Btw, here's an interesting wikipedia-article about 'Denglisch': http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denglisch

Then let me answer you in English. Yes and No. Like for everyone else, they have a different aptitude for them and they will experience differing levels of confusion and difficulty. As for me, I had to learn both and neither is my native language. One of the crucial differences is that English is a requirement in German schools (as well as most Ukrainian schools now). So the students are exposed early and therefore have a learning advantage of those that attempt it at a later age. Furthermore, English is also largely based on German. So it should be relatively easy for a German speaker to learn English versus a Latin based language like French, Italian, or Spanish.



I hope that helps.



Ich hoffe das du aber dabei bleibst da es gut ist etwas Deutsch zu können.

Hello there marching Spartan,

Don't apologize for your few mistakes trying to converse in German...trying is better than doing nothing.



German is a rather difficult language to learn for an English speaker. I find it exhausting to read an article in the paper, BECAUSE Germans have the habit of not getting directly to the point. Read my exaggerated example down below, and will see what I mean.



Example: My grandmother being 95 with snow white hair that she started dying 80 years while she was dating grandpa in the neighboring Town of Hemlock during the month of August when it rained cats and dogs, really likes to read suspense thrillers.



I know that this is rather overdone, but that is how I see it after so many years of living in an English speaking country. I really prefer reading English, and I am not talking about the gossip colums in the trash magazines.

***

Karl,

Da hast Du aber etwas tolles zusammen gekritzelt.

Hi--americn U:S--

me thing no really.

me know from my histoy-many american no wont learn german-

so sam german no wont understand way to learn english

-

dont worry that-me a german -

I like U.S american english-

me hat work a lot time long time with american in history west berlin.

Actually English is a germanic language. Is it hard to learn for a German? Well, that depents on where in Germany a person has been raised! Germany is populated by many different tribes, most of which have their own interpretation of the German language!

So, to come back to your question, as much as it may be hard to learn English for somebody from north and east Germany, it is quite easy for somebody from Bavaria or Frankonia. Their languages have many similarities with English, especially in the pronounciation, but also many words are the same, only sometimes with a different meaning.

For example, it is easier for a Bavarian or Frankonian to learn English than to learn and understand the German language of the Prussians (North and East Germany!)!!!