I personally say "yes" it is a hard language to learn. It's hard
to speak as well as to learn the grammar. German has three genders
for things (nouns).
SECOND OPINION:
I would say German isn't so hard to learn if you take it step by
step and realize that all those impossible to remember words in
German are simplistic once you know what they mean. For example,
Geschirrspülmaschine comes from Geschirr (dishes), spülen (to
wash), and Maschine (machine) it is the dish washing machine.
Third Opinion:
I argue that German is a harder language to learn than the other
major European languages - Spanish French and Italian are all much
easier for a native English speaker. The problem is the grammar -
modern German grammar resembles old English and old French grammar
- these languages were left by the wayside around 500+ years ago.
There is a LOT of grammatical rules compared to English. For
starters there are three genders. Secondly there are four cases -
English and French do not have cases. They are annoying. Thirdly
there are almost no rules for plurals. In English you just add s.
In German each word has it's own plural form - ie das kind, die
kinder, der tisch, die tische, die regel, die regeln. These are the
major problems with German, although there are other issues that
make it difficult. The verbs also require conjugations and there
are irregular forms etc, but they are mostly annoying because of
taking fairly arbitrary prepositions, i fall in love in, i wait on,
i know from - commpletely different from English and somewhat
counter intuitive. Add to this split verbs. Then there are the very
very long compound words as described above. These are mostly
intuitive, but not always, and of course you have to know all the
meanings of the smaller words. You can get by speaking a bastard
German, ie simplifying most of the genders to das, the plurals to
"er" and ignoring the cases or using "dem" although you won't fool
native speakers. You can learn the finer details if you think it's
worth it and you have a few years to spend in Germany.
Fourth Opinion:
I, as a person who speaks almost 6 languages would say it's
hard, but don't feel discouraged.
Fifth Opinion:
I say yes, but also no.
If you understand what you are learning, then it can be fairly
easy. If you want to learn it, you can.
However, it can be confusing. I'm in my first year of German
(and top of the class) and in my second year of Spanish. German is
a lot harder than learning Spanish. There is not as many cognates
(words that sound/are written nearly the same in English) as there
is in Spanish. For example, die Apfel, apple, sounds nearly the
same. In German you also have the articles: der, die, and das,
which are matched to the noun. Those are harder to remember. In
Spanish, it is easy because the noun usually ends in o (el, as in
el perro [the dog]) or a (la, as in, la manzana [the apple]).
Sixth Opinion
I have been learning German for about a year and half. I don't
think it is that hard to be fair. Yes there is the problematic
Genders and Plurals and Cases. But while you will hate cases in the
beginning, they become your friend later on. So if you want help
with cases and Genders here they are.
Das can only indicate a neuter word.
Der is the Masculine Singular, also is the Feminine Dative, also
the Genitive singular and plural.
Die can indicate a feminine or plural word in the nominative
case.
Den comes only in masucline and dative plural forms.
Dem is the Dative Masculine and Neuter article.
Des is the Genative Masculine and Neuter.
This should make it easier for people learning German.
Seventh Opinion
If you love a language, it becomes much easier to learn.
The secret to learning German is to find a way to fall in love
with it.
