> There is no other language, for example, that is close enough to English that we can get about half of what people are saying without training and the rest with only modest effort. German and Dutch are like that, as are Spanish and Portuguese, or Thai and Lao
Only because we've arbitrarily decided that all of the English dialects are a single language. Texas Southern English and Newfoundland English are not significantly more mutually intelligible than Spanish and Portuguese. Scots and Singlish are considered English dialects but are barely intelligible to many English speakers.
Nor does Armenian or Bengali. But English does. Gender does not affect grammar in English (cf French where conjugation depends on grammar), but it is actually a gendered language with three genders. Almost all nouns are neuter but many animate pronouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter (people or animals can be referred to as "he", "she", or "it"/"they"). Some inanimate pronouns can also be gendered. For example, ships are often female; you might say something like "she's a beauty" when talking about a boat. There are also a handful of gendered nouns. For example, "actor" and "actress" are masculine and feminine nouns.
Only because we've arbitrarily decided that all of the English dialects are a single language. Texas Southern English and Newfoundland English are not significantly more mutually intelligible than Spanish and Portuguese. Scots and Singlish are considered English dialects but are barely intelligible to many English speakers.