Depends on where you come from, Norwegians usually don't have big problems in learning German, we can even understand what Netherlenders are saying, its hard, but if we are consentrating, we can do it ;-))
The correct word to refer to people from Holland/The Netherlands is "Dutch" actually .
But you were almost right, in Dutch this translates to "Nederlanders".
I agree with your point though, it really depends on what your native language is how difficult it is to learn a specific language. Having had Latin in highschool, I can say that also greatly reduces the amount of effort to learn new, western languages (for instance Portuguese) because so much of them is based on it.
And Afrikaans and Dutch (even German) are quite similar. So I can understand (basically, as my Afrikaans is a bit rusty) what the Dutch and Germans are saying
Who the hell are you, I think?
I'm not under what you'd call
The accofluence of incahol
I'm Just a little slort of sheep
I don't know who is me yet,
but the drunker I stand here,
the longer I get
So give me one more fink to drill my cup
'cos I've got all day sober to Sunday up