Will learning Dutch make my German worse? Or is that just a myth?

Oh and to clarify, I'm not talking about learning German and Dutch at the same time as a beginner (Obviously that would be a terrible idea given the similarities between them). I'm talking about learning Dutch after I've reached a conversational or proficient level in German.

I'm a native English speaker who wants to learn German and become fluent enough to use it at a professional level.

However I've heard from some people that trying to learn Dutch after German made their German worse because they kept mixing up the words. Someone even said that they had to intentionally forget their German to make any significant progress in Dutch because of the muscle memory interference.

I should also mention that I learned some basic Afrikaans throughout my high school years. Now obviously Afrikaans isn't widely used in Europe or an in demand skill compared to Dutch and German.

  • Should I learn German at a high level, forget about Afrikaans and take on Dutch later stage?
  • Or should I learn German to a high level, forget about learning Dutch and hold onto my basic Afrikaans for old time's sake?

Personally I find it easier to keep German and Afrikaans separate because Afrikaans has a simpler grammar and is more distant from German.

submitted by /u/RealDezlyMacauley
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