Also, as an aside: Dutch is probably the closest language to English (aside from very minor or no longer spoken languages).

no, not really, dutch are close to german. Spanish is closer to english, than dutch.

	▲	xattt 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The Foreign Service Institute has a language difficulty rating, based on the first language of a speaker, to estimate the number of class hours needed to achieve fluency in English. Learning English from Dutch is 24-30 weeks whereas from German is 36 weeks. I am assuming some degree of reciprocity but maybe not. (1) https://dlsdc.com/blog/fsi-language-difficulty/