Why do so many countries view their languages as being ridiculously impossible for English speakers?

There seems to be a stereotype in a lot of non-English speaking countries, and even some English speakers believe it to that native English speakers are braindead an incapable of learning another language. I'm currently learning Spanish and Russian, and everytime I talk to a native speaker of these languages, they just seem to love reinforcing how difficult their language is, and when you ask them what they think is easiest, they always seem to say English. The strange thing is, if you look at both Spanish and English from a non-biased point of view, Spanish is clearly the simplest in almost every aspect. Many Asians like to claim their language is the hardest, yet with the exception of writing, most Asian languages aren't particularly complicated ethier.