The French and speaking English

When I was in high school and traveled to France for the first time, few French spoke English and making it difficult for we Americans who are not good at other languages. Now, France is distinctly different, as so many young people are working hard to learn and speak English, while we are working hard to learn and speak French. So it was interesting to read the attached article which describes the French and their difficulty in learning English via the existing educational system and that they are 69th in the world for multi-lingual skills. The article doesn't say what America is but must be lower, as so few Americans even have a passport (about 25% now which is a higher number since post 9/11 travel to Mexico and a few other Caribbean Islands now require a passport. Here's hoping we continue to improve in our language skills and travel experiences, bon voyage: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/09/why-don-t-the-french-speak-english.html