Spanish is probably going to have more influence and be spoken as a second language by more people than any other immigrant tounge in America in the next decade or so. At least that seems to be the trend. I've always heard that English was dificult because of the idioms, grammar, etc. Having taken a brief whack at Russian, I can say a totally different alphabet definitely makes things harder. I think in other countries, forein languages are probably taught earlier and more consistently. Not being exposed until the later grades makes it tough since the natural childhood language learning ability isn't there. At some point, translation technology will likely advance to the point where the internet will be largely language transparent and you can access anything in your preferred language. Looking at the way they currently mangle Japanese to English though it may be quite a while.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken