I learned a little bit of Norwegian before traveling there. Sure most people we met spoke English but it did help when the trams in Oslo were being rerouted and

I learned a little bit of Norwegian before traveling there. Sure most people we met spoke English but it did help when the trams in Oslo were being rerouted and I was able to read the sign at the otherwise empty tram stop telling us the stop was closed and where to go instead! Or read the Norwegian menu and order appetizers (in English), at which point the waitress realized we weren't Norwegian and gave us the English menus (I didn't realize most restaurants had English menus as well, good for us). I wouldn't have fared well with the main courses. I've found lay food terminology is one the least universal things. My point is, however, that I found learning Norwegian easier than learning Spanish, which I was fluent in at one point, years ago. There weren't 14 tenses to learn like in Spanish, sentence structure felt more familiar and closer to English, and there were many more cognates than I expected. Sure there were some new things like putting articles before or appended to nouns to denote indefinite or definite. Or even the gendered articles (my favorite thing about English is nearly all nouns are neuter).