My opinion - I believe if people from the U.S. are going to visit another country they should learn enough of the language of that country to be able to communicate on at least a very basic level. I have seen too many instances where Americans visit other countries and are upset because not everyone there speaks English. Our family speaks Spanish but only did so when we used to travel in Mexico. When we decided to visit France, we took the time to learn some basic French before going there. The most difficulty I had was understanding the people in England. I expect people who choose to live in the United States to speak, read and write English with some level of proficiency.
In my school days we took at least two years of Latin which really helped with my English.
When Americans do business with people in another country I would think it good business strategy to speak their language unless they request that the conversation be conducted in English.
With a dad who was career military, we learned a few basic sentences in Japanese when we were there, but I doubt I’d ever be able to master a far eastern language-they are just too different. He was stationed in Puerto Rico, and that Spanish dialect is very different than what is spoken in SW Texas/Northern Mexico.
SW Texas ranchers and other small business owners like my family routinely do business with their counterparts on the Mexican side of the border-we are of Latino ancestry, but those who are any other ethnicity speak Spanish for the purposes of business-and just to know another language. Interestingly enough, most people from the Mexican side who do business with people in Texas/NM speak English rather well.
I went to Catholic school, so we were required to learn Latin-my knowing Spanish definitely helped with that. I’ve tried to learn French, but have never been successful-it is very different from Spanish-MrT5 was very good at it, but he learned Quebecois at home as a second language as I did Spanish.
My Brit neighbor rattled off to me a lot of regional dialects of British English, and they all sound different to me-far more variations on the English language than here, and we have several.