I have always had a thing for languages! They were my strongest subjects at school... so I wonder why I'm studying biotechnology at university lol.
I've studied both French and Spanish and I really think they're very easy to grasp. Conjugation is sooooo important, and it's the part where many people fall down on. Some students find it really difficult, but I've found that those students are the sort that don't even know what an infinitive is. I don't want to sound really arrogant or pompous when it comes to languages. Initially it definitely starts off really difficult, and even when you're accomplished the tricky parts will always come from those magical verbs that follow their own rules. Learning a language is something I think you have to be... consistant with. You gain momentum as you learn new things, and after you've experienced it enough you can see how things fit together, and that helps it stick in your head more. I don't think you can achieve particularly good results if you do last minute study sessions- though I guess for memorising crazy verbs it might be useful?
If you don't make an effort then I think that it's alot more difficult to grasp. Of course you can say the same for anything, but with other subjects you have set things you can learn and do last minute. I feel languages take a long time to build up! Again, conjugation is extremely important.