In France, in my high school days, the number of languages u had to master was determined by what your speciality was. I was math/physics so I had only 1 foreign language mandatory. My GF in writing/literrary had to cope with 2 foreign languages, and 1 dead one (Latin).
I started to learn english at 12, started to get really proficient around 17 when all I dead was translating video game manuals in French to play the dam thing, as well as watching my favorite movies in English, rather than dubed in French.
I'm softly working on Spanish, French/Spanish/English really gives you a wide array of countries where you can get by.
I think the habit of Europeans to learn several languages rose by necessity. It's quite a babel tower over there, you have to know a couple languages to do business with your neighbors, as well as the increasing number of inter-countries mariages, such as my cousin coming from a French dad, and Austrian mom. She speacks fluent French/Austrian/German from the get go, learned English fluent, and Spanish broken on the top of that. USA in the other hand, is kind of a self suficient country where the need of communicating with foreigners is not a prime necessity. (Althrough spanish should be mandatory, as you can get a lot more done if you can speak it).
