Why do Germanic languages look more complex than Romance languages?

Question

LOOK not ARE more complex, it would look like it would take years to learn a Germanic language compared to a Romance one. For instance Icelandic: Hver maður er borinn frjáls og jafn öðrum að virðingu og réttindum. Menn eru gæddir vitsmunum og samvisku, og ber þeim að breyta bróðurlega hverjum við annan. Then Spanish: Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros. (both phrases mean same thing)

Answer 1

Nice one! Because, although English is classified as a Germanic language, there has been so much influence from Norman French that we modern day English speakers recognise Romance roots often more easily than Germanic roots.

If you compared the Icelandic extract with Old English, then there would be significant similarities. For instance, réttindum means 'rights' but you recognise 'derechos' as the same thing. I like bróðurlega = fraternalmente = brotherly in particular.

Answer 2

The origins of most of the words are foreign to us, so it looks more intimidating.  

Answer 3

Interesting, would you mind to translate the phrase please?

I find that Germanic is more difficult to learn (Even though I am German, shame on me!) then a Romanic language. My thought on that is because the Romanic does not differentiate between the gender cases as much as a germanic language. For instance in German we would call a male dog Der Hund, however the female dog would be Die Huendin.  

Answer 4

I've actually found that I am more familiar with the sentence structures of Germanic languages, and so they are easier for me to learn and less intimidating than Romance languages. Maybe that's just me....

I think it all depends on the familiarity of the learner with the language. If it is too distant, complex, and unfamiliar, we will be more intimidated and take longer to grasp the concepts. However, I know some people say that languages that they thought would be embarrassingly easy to learn because they were so similar to their native language (Scots Gaelic, for example, which is very similar to English) have found them more difficult to learn because they confuse the /very/ subtle differences, and that it is just too similar and just different enough from their own language to be confusing. So, I guess it is a matter of personal preference and learning style.

I don't think it is actual complexity of the language that matters, but familiarity and perception.