Lekker man!
I was in Belgium last year for a bit and the one night (after a few beers) our BnB host was speaking fluent Afrikaans and we were fluent in Dutch... you're right though... it's pretty close even when you're sober :P
Love the guess... stay tuned for the reveal in about 6 days' time.
Yes, I think it can be picked up pretty quickly. It's a very litteral language. I know a couple of words, like 'hysbak', and those seem to describe things so much better than the words we use, lol.
Anyway, can't wait to find out what it is :0)