The way translation engines are trained is with a body of written text in two languages, which teaches the engine both how words translate and how they fit in equivalent semantic contexts. That way it can decide which synonym is the best one to use given the context, and lose the least amount of context in the bridging.

Of course a person as put in effort, so has in every language. But that's irrelevant if there isn't a large body of text in both languages to learn from. I'm sure German and Dutch have a looooot of shared texts.

Doesn't German -> Dutch basically involve just translating half the words to English and adding a silly accent though?