Yes. But also no. German and dutch is similar. But to really speak it, you have still to learn.

no

but that language was Japanese

which isnt like anything

I learned French in school, and then later I spent a summer in Quebec where my fluency was cemented. It helped me pick up Spanish because they're structurally very similar, and both based on Latin. I'm not yet fluent in Spanish, but I live in an area with a very large Mexican population, so I get the opportunity to practice and use it pretty regularly. I could probably be fluent in 6mo if I focused on it, but I'm lazy so I just pick up bits and pieces as I go. I anticipate general fluency in the the next 2 years. If I hadn't learned French, I don't think I'd be anywhere near as far along as I am.

It does. It may not have direct benefit, but inherently it helps.

Yes!

Technically I only speak 2 languages fluently(Swedish and English), but having taken French in junior high and then I learn basic Russian as a fun activity at my church, then I learned a few words in Finnish but that's super different. Then I took Danish language comprehension as my one university course (it's similar to Swedish, but like they have a potato in their mouth and talk in their throat and skip the last half of most words)

Now I'm learning Korean.

So, some people would say it's easier to pick up a language in the same language group, which is true, because there are less completely new words and word order to get familiar with.

Why I say Yes, is because having learned a little bit of a lot of different languages has set me up to be open to new words way more easily than someone who's never learned a different language.

I recognize words that are the same on lots of languages, or sound the same but mean something else. Those words are easier to remember because I'm already somewhat familiar with them.

Having learned some Russian that has a relatively simple word order, (they skip a lot of between words) has helped me with Korean because they tend to skip certain between words, or add to the end of words instead of adding a new word. This is how Finish works.

Having learned French that flips the order of sentences compared to English had also set me up to understand Korean language structure quicker than someone who's never engaged in one of those languages before.

Also, Russian has a few words that are different if you know someone, or if they're older than you, which is extremely important in Korean.

Having watched a lot of Korean shows, they get super upset if someone "talks down" or "talks casually" dropping g honorifics to people even just one year older, or a boss.

I would say currently I have 3 buckets, 1 Swedish, 1 English, and 1 with all the others where if I'm speaking one, I'll borrow from another one if I'm missing a word, but I am fully aware of using the wrong language. 🤣

I hope this gives you some insight to how I see the answer to your question. 🙂

Yes,

After learning a second language, the third, forth... are easier even if they have nothing to donwith each other. Learning other languages a lot of times teach you thing of you native language, because you never look for the logic and the relationships behind it.

Also it should develop some cognitive strutures is your brain or something: my daughter was born in a different country ultill she was 2 years old. In the kindergarden she undertood perfectlly the local language and at home our native language (she had some trouble speaking as she was mixing both languages). Then we came back and 6 months later, I've check and she had everything forgotten. But now she is learning english in the school at an amazing pace. Way faster than the other kids, and I am pretty sure is because her brain structure is different, somehow thanks to those 2 years she lived abroad

DEFINITELY.