The US Foreign Service Institute doesn't rank German as particularly hard to learn for native English speakers, but I did note that it gets a whole category all to itself.

German preserves a lot of old grammar like 4 cases (think Latin) that English lost after the Norman conquest. (Try to read the beowulf saga to see what I mean)

But it's more consistent with less exceptions than English and has simpler tenses.

I heard linguists saying that learning perfect German is easier than perfect English.

Unfortunately it's also mostly taught like Latin in school with endless grammar lessons.

I spend much time learning Russian grammar and can sympathize how painful this can be.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language and ☆☆☆☆ :)
Je suis Charlie!}