The reason that kids in other countries are learning English is that English is becoming (or has become) the new Lingua Franca :=) for international commerce.
Many years ago, the predominant language used in chemistry was German. To be able to read and understand research papers, it was just a given that any college chemistry student would need to be proficient in German. While I don't know it for certain, I'd be willing to bet that today chemistry research papers are more typically written in English rather than German.
I still think that studying another language is part of any well-rounded education and it’s required for admission by virtually every college out there. Why shouldn’t Girl Scouts learn a little Spanish?