Norwegian

Norwegian has a remarkably English-friendly word order (subject-verb-object), simple verb conjugation (no changes for person or number), and thousands of shared Germanic roots. "Arm" is arm. "Finger" is finger. "Hammer" is hammer. The FSI rates it at 575-600 hours. Norwegian also unlocks mutual intelligibility with Swedish and Danish — learn one, understand three. The tonal element (two pitch accents) is the only tricky part, and messing it up rarely causes confusion. 5.3 million speakers.