Linguistics
For "french is a latin tongue", it is not the problem but a point among others. Generally it is easier for a german-speaking guy to learn english, it is easier for a pole to learn russian and so on...But I didn't see where Supercharger wanted to "go", whether he wanted truly any linguistic debate, so I have claimed that quickly.
You're right about prononciation, there is a kind of "problem" concerning the oral expression about the frequencies between english and french. I believe that I have ever discussed of that here a long time ago. Nevertheless, we, i.e. the french speaking people, have no problems to understand germans if we are able to know german. German was my first tongue at school, but I have lost a bit, and I can assure you that if you know the words in the sentences you understand the whole meaning. There are more common frequencies between french and german. A french, listening to some english or even worse some kind of "chewing-gum american", even if he knows the words, would have far more difficulties. At least that's my case, but I have learnt english mainly on the web too.
Smeagol