I’m 40 years into trying to become fluent-ish in Dutch and it’s going to need another lifetime to get there unfortunately. So English to Dutch ain’t much of a passerelle.

Back in the days it is said that our Dutch speaking neighbours had an « easier » time learning English because they didn’t had much in the way of local content. Whereas as a French speaker we have all dubbed so less pressure to get introduced early to English.

I find it super funny that you position French as easier than English. In what language are you native? From my anecdotal evidence discussing with a sizeable amount of foreigners French is among the most hated / difficult western language to learn. Possibly because of all the prononciation shenanigans, it’s not like in Dutch and English where sounds are somewhat logical.