Originally Posted by Circe

I never found German too hard to listen to as an English speaker. I think a lot of the perception of it as a "harsh" language is linked to stereotypes of Germans being cold and intimidating. The more understated speakers I've heard have made it sound far less angry and mean. If you want a good example of a Germanic language that sounds alien to English ears Dutch is probably the best example, particularly with Flemish speakers. It has just the right combination of similarities and complete differences to English to sound completely bizarre, and that's not getting into how weird Dutch accents sound when speaking English.