Can native English speakers learn the Scandinavian,Dutch and German languages easily?

Answer 1

The Nordic languages*, Dutch, German and English share a common Germanic root. This makes them relatively easier to learn for a native English speaker, at least to a basic level, than a language from a different family, for example Greek.

*Technically, Scandinavian refers to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. I'm using Nordic to include Iceland and its language. 

Finland is also classed as a Nordic country, but its language (Suomi) is not Germanic and so not closely related to the other Nordic languages.

Answer 2

They can if they WANT TOO.

Danish was the hardest for me of those listed.

Verb conjugation simpler in Scandinavian languages.

Answer 3

Dutch is the closest major language to English.  A reasonably well-educated person who speakers English as their primary language should not have a lot of difficulty in learning Dutch.  The Scandinavian (Swedish, Norse, Danish) and German languages are "cousins" or "second cousins" to English.  They would be harder to learn than Dutch, but easier than, say, Italian or Finnish.

Answer 4

How easily depends on the aptitude of the individual.  Some people find it easier than others to learn new languages. English speakers would find it easier to learn a language which is classed as Indo-European as the basic structure is very similar.  

Answer 5

In my opinion Dutch will be the easiest one for an English speaker.

You might find the pronunciation difficult.

The spelling is very phonetic and the alphabet  is like English without altering letters or superscripts.Some comparisons;

Where English uses th Dutch often uses a D,a Z more than a C, a K more than a C

a V more than an F

Answer 6

The words are often similar, but each language has its own grammatical rules and genders which are hard to learn if you are a native English speaker.   

(English grammar is relatively easy and noun genders are not important except when you refer to a person or animal).

Answer 7

relatively easy

for the average native speaker of English, the romanic and most germanic languages are easier than languages of other families - but not as easy as Esperanto

Th US Foreign Service Institute lists Icelandic and Finnish as "1100 hours of class", German as "750 hours of class", Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch as "600 hours of class" and Esperanto as "150 hrs of class"

Hard ones like Arabic, Korean, Japanese and any type of Chinese require 2200 hours (=88 weeks minimum) each

Answer 8

Yes, with the exception of Finnish which is much harder to learn,  as it has no fewer than 15 grammatical cases. German needs you to pay very careful attention to the use of grammar.  Maybe start with Norwegian.

Answer 9

i was posted to Germany after WW2 and could speak conversational German within 3 Months i only had Trouble with Technical terms

Note I was a Londoner

Answer 10

Maybe. How would you define 'easily'? Some people will never find it easy to learn a foreign language.