Easiest language

What would be the easiest language a English speaker could learn?

I am asking because I would like to start out with a easier language before I move on to the harder more time consuming ones. Mostly because I have heard that as you learn more and more languages it gets a bit easier as you go.

There are about 5 that I am interested in learning as a end result:
German
Dutch
French
Spanish
Italian

But am willing to start anywhere really. I have basic French from primary school but it has for the most part left me totally. No training at all in the others, but have spend time in countries speaking all of them, more so Italian than any others.

Also any thoughts on timing for learning these? I had figured around 3 years being that 3 of them are very close, and the 2 others are very close also.

And advice at all is very welcomed.

Cheers!

>>17

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_languages

Enjoy the massive chart showing words that are almost exactly the same across all germanic languages.

Additionally many of the common germanic roots have been modified through phonological changes over time like the german consonant shift and are hard to recogniz.

When it comes down to it a 60% similarity in lexicon is totally believable if not a modest estimate.