system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If English is a Germanic language, why is it so difficult to read texts/understand speech in other Germanic languages?

I also speak Spanish, and I find it a lot easier to read text/partially understand spoken Portuguese and French (both of which are Romance languages), whereas the other Germanic languages (Dutch, German, Danish, etc.) are almost completely indecipherable for me as a native English speaker.
gpt
English is the dirty bastard of Germanic languages.

It is not German, it is rooted in the same early language group that gave us modern German/Dutch/Icelandic and the rest.

English was heavily influenced by the Romance language group, particularly through old French, when the invading Normans brought it along.  Toss in some Gaelic influence, more Latin for the 'scholarly' types, and you end up with a language that bears only a passing resemblance to its Germanic cousins.