<p>English is a Germanic language. Sort of like with romance languages (they say if you speak French you can pick up Italian, etc), once you know one Germanic, the rest come pretty easily.
After four years of German, I could read Dutch.
I think the sounds themselves are not necessarily too similar...German is much more guttural, many sounds are made in the back of the throat. It also contains sounds never heard in English, such as the o-umlaut.<br>
Overall, though, I think German is closest to English
They don't call them sister languages for nothing, you know!</p>