IME, American public schools tended to teach French more than any other language.

[AsahinaKimi]

6. When I was going to high school

The language groups were: French, Spanish, Latin, and German. No Asian languages. I understand they teach Tagalog, and Mandarin Chinese now at my old school. I would have loved to have had more Japanese in my early child hood days but my parents wouldn't have it. My mother was an English Teacher, despite she spoke Japanese and Korean fluently along with English. My father speaks Kansai ben a dialect of the Osaka~Kansai district. He told me I should learn standardize Japanese before he would ever teach me Kansai ben. I had to take Japanese in College.. and later at a language School. I wish my parents had made me bilingual from the start.. I went to school with many Chinese friends, many of whom spoke English, Mandarin and Cantonese fluently. Many times they would ask me .."What does this mean in Japanese" and I had no clue. An American kid growing up with an Asian face.. and I wanted to be bilingual so badly.. finally I got the chance.. and I dug into it!

Yatta!