English is my second language. I took German throughout middle school and high school. I did alright with it. When I went to college, I decided to switch it up and take French.
I could not get it. At all. Part of it was an extremely easy first semester professor followed by an awful, hard second semester professor. However, it just never, ever clicked with me. I went back to German to satisfy my two year college requirement.
Later, upon reflection, I realized that I am heavily reliant on knowing grammar rules, and French was just too much of a change from German/English. Sure, German's verb conjugations and genders were new to an English speaker. However, because of the similar grammar, German was a lot easier for me to pick up than anything I've seen since.
Its funny how sometimes 'antiquated' English text uses word order that is so similar to German ('When I Was One-and-Twenty'... etc). Sometimes when I read such stuff, I get the feeling that my English teacher might have marked the sentence as incorrect or 'sounding to German'.
I could not get it. At all. Part of it was an extremely easy first semester professor followed by an awful, hard second semester professor. However, it just never, ever clicked with me. I went back to German to satisfy my two year college requirement.
Later, upon reflection, I realized that I am heavily reliant on knowing grammar rules, and French was just too much of a change from German/English. Sure, German's verb conjugations and genders were new to an English speaker. However, because of the similar grammar, German was a lot easier for me to pick up than anything I've seen since.