I am bilingual. A fren that ran a language school said German is one of the hardest languages to teach. He said the same about English. Der-die-das has to be memorized, for the most part. Masculine-feminine-neutral does not always apply to the articles, for some weird reason. DIE (fem) Frau (woman), but DAS (neut) Maedchen (girl). But two or more girls are 'die Maedchen'. Fuck.