That's not true. "V" and "f" are interchangable (e.g. I always forget if it's "haven" or "hafen", which would be pronounced the same), as are "eu" and "äu". "V" at the beginning of a word is pronounced like an English "V" (as in "Viktoriapark"), where it's ambiguous with "w". There are also a large number of French, English and Slavic words that are used in German (for instance I live in "Treptow", which is pronounced as it would be in English, not with a "v" sound on the end). Jumbojet is perhaps the funniest, where the first "j" is pronounced as a "y" and the second as a "j".
In general mastering German is harder than mastering French for an English speaker, despite them being linguistically quite similar. German has retained a lot of features that have been stripped out in various degrees in other Germanic languages, most radically in English, that are difficult for English speakers (case system, almost totally irregular plurals, irregular genders, irregular past participles, irregular usage of "haben" and "sein" in construction of compound tenses and so on).
(I'm an American that's lived in Germany for almost 10 years.)
In general mastering German is harder than mastering French for an English speaker
I've heard lots of people say this. I don't know any French, so can't comment.
I guess I don't notice the letter differences so much. I suppose having German family corrupted my sense of how letters are pronounced ;-)
As for "eu" and "äu", could this be a thing similar to "ss" vs "ß"? In any case, when reading German, I don't find these pairs a problem. Of course when writing German, they obviously are, so I stand corrected on this, though I did say "generally" and not "always". As others have commented, its probably a one-way thing: reading is definitely much much easier than writing.
for instance I live in "Treptow", which is pronounced as it would be in English, not with a "v" sound on the end
Place names don't seem have as regular pronunciation as normal words.
In general mastering German is harder than mastering French for an English speaker, despite them being linguistically quite similar. German has retained a lot of features that have been stripped out in various degrees in other Germanic languages, most radically in English, that are difficult for English speakers (case system, almost totally irregular plurals, irregular genders, irregular past participles, irregular usage of "haben" and "sein" in construction of compound tenses and so on).
(I'm an American that's lived in Germany for almost 10 years.)