Well I live in the USA and you're right,the teeny bit of a 2nd language taught in high school is hardly anything and you even get to choose ( French,Spanish,Italian) well,in my day anyway - unless you want to study further it's only like a year course --- I don't know anyone that even remembers what they learned as a freshman in high school!!!It's so interesting to me because everyone I know here that's around my age can speak fluently English. It's taught in school and just a generally adopted language. My girlfriend and I speak English half the time and sometimes I even catch myself thinking and dreaming in English. I always forget it's not as normal for at least Americans to get taught different languages. I think French is taught in Canada more right?
Seems the rest of the world teaches English from a young age ,mandatory .....everyone I know can speak enough English to get by in a conversation even though it's not their first language- if my family did not speak Italian Idve learned nothing in school
Many parts of Canada is French Canadian and it is their first language - I do believe most Canadians learn French though it's a little different from French spoken in France- still they learn a lot more than Americans I think.... We have too many choices here and not mandated part of school curriculum imo