I think getting to a decent understanding of German should not be too hard, but some nuances are. Even some native speakers struggle with parts of the grammar, like dass/das, dativ/genetiv, etc. I am a native German speaker who learned English as his second language and is now learning Greek, including a different alphabet, as his third.
Literacy for example seems to be quite good in some countries with languages which for me would look difficult. The UK OTOH is not happy with their results.
