Second Language for Native English Speakers

As I wrote it before, there are some English people working at the hostel where I am staying at this moment. They mostly coming to Paris in order to practice their French skills as far as I heard.

Throught this joruney, I met a lots of people from all over the country. People from England, France, the United States, Australia, Benesuera, Alzentina, Israel, China, India even Japan and almost all parts of Europe and few of them from Africa. Potencially, I saw a lots of African or I would say black people but I coundn't talk with all of them.

And then, when I try to communicate with people I have to speak English except for Japanese.

I didn't talk a lot about this topic to the people who can speak English as a native language, but how they feel about when a lots of people from all over the world trying to speak their mother tongue? I can't imagine if people in the world they try to speak studying Japanese as the first foreign language.
At the same time , it would be hard to imagine in Europe that if there is any country try to teach any language other than English as a first foreign language.

Only once when I was in Romania I encountered the situation I didn't expecte. A friend of a girl who I met, she study French for her first foreign langiage which she chouldn't speak English. For us, in Japan, people start studying English when they are thirteen years old, which is the first year of junior high school.
We study English without any reason just like studying science or math. That's all Japanese students starts after enrolled junior high.

But, how is the people from native English country? Like them who I met at the hostel, do they study French as the first foreign language?

I can imagine that people in England might want to study French because it's giografically close. But I cannot imagine that people in US they prefer studying French more than Spanish and other language. Probably people in US such as the state of CA, they got a spanish culture from Mexico and Hispanic. How about Australian and people in Nz? Depends on the person what they want to learn?

If I were English, I could speak French at the moment.

If I were the US, I could speak Spanish.

I have been feeling quite hard to study French in here. Yes, just trying to have a dream if I were. I envy those people who can speak French as a foreign language.

Yet, I could make a good friendship with the people from Britain in Paris, which I respect how English is important to communicate with the people.

Yuji @ Paris, France 13