It's also interesting to see the affection of learning English in school as a child in this research.
In Israel (where I live), there is a big argument lately on the importance of learning English as part of the mandatory school materials.
Anecdotal. Here's another: my language teachers from year 3-12 were above average if anything—most of my peers were at least conversational in Spanish (or their selected language) by high school.
At the time, the school system offered Spanish, French, German and Latin. Those who took Latin almost always had medical school ambitions. I asked.