German

Since Thursday, I've been teaching myself German using an old college textbook from the '70's. Sad thing is that the book is the second one in the series, not the first. German is tough but I'm trying. How do those Germans do it? The vowels themselves have two kinds of sounds- long and short. Then there are those diphthongs. Diphthongs are two vowel sounds put together. Like "au" is one of them. I haven't gotten too far in the book yet, but I wonder if learning this mysterious and infamously difficult language is worth my while?