For learning Marathi language it is necessary to know alphabets in Marathi. You have to know alphabets in Marathi to learn writing in Marathi language. Marathi alphabets are the building blocks of Marathi language. There are 52 characters in Marathi alphabets. Marathi alphabets are made up of Marathi vowels and Marathi consonants. The Marathi alphabets contain 16 vowels and 36 consonants. Marathi vs German gives a comparison between Marathi and German alphabets.
Marathi script is also known as Marathi writing system or Marathi orthography. The set of visible signs used to represent units of Marathi language in a systematic way is called Marathi Script. The Marathi language uses Devanagari i.e. Marathi alphabets are derived from Devanagari script. The script decides the writing direction of the any language, hence the writing direction of Marathi is Left-To-Right, Horizontal. Learn Marathi Greetings where you will find some interesting phrases.
Is Marathi hard to learn? The answer to this question is that it depends on one's native language. One should start learning Marathi language with Marathi alphabets and Marathi phonology.
Time taken to learn any language that is mentioned here is the approximate time required to learn specific language for the person who is proficient in English. You can also go through all Indian Languages and find if Marathi is one of the language of India.