I'm bored so let's try something silly. Everyone's second language is now English, those who aren't natively English, of course. What about the third? I'm fairly sure school forces everyone to learn not just one but two foreign languages. What's your second foreign one? For English speakers, what's your first (foreign)? Mine's German, btw.
I would have guessed that you would have said your second language was Binary..... In the USA, every public school requires a foreign language. I would say that in the US if your family spoke English at home, you likely took Spanish in Public middle and high school. At the very least you became conversational in that second language. Some schools also offer French and German. Latin is rare but still offered in some. If you then go on to college, many require a foreign language class, but not all. I went to NYU Business school which had no requirement, which was good for me as I got a B- in Spanish in HS. If you then move to a community or job where speaking in Spanish is no longer required, you are lucky by the time you are 25 if you can still read signs in Spanish and remember maybe 50 words, not enough to carry on a conversation.
I was fairly sure it's Spanish for US. That's not even an option where I'm from (Romania, Eastern Europe) and I'm pretty sure it's the same all over Eastern Europe. Spaniards have virtually not ever been here culturally. On the other hand, we are or were in the near past neighboring Germany, Russia and Turkey. Definitely nothing to do with English but best best (like 98% probability if they speak a foreign language) if you were to speak with anyone there would still be English, so first language is easy. But second? Might seem complicated unless you knew that the first rule also applies within Russia and Turkey. Best bet to speak a foreign language (not theirs, that is), after English, is German. So sorry for a foreign language taking precedence over their native in school optionals but it's all about being rational with numbers
I guess I did not finish my thought. Here, if your family speaks English at home, a third language would not be typical. I would say it is rare. If you speak a foreign language at home e.g. Spanish, Korean, Chinese etc., it would not be typical to then take that language at school, so you learn a third one. I would say that most family's here stress English and then the language of their family. Americans born here do not seem to have the same interest in other languages as they do overseas.
Well, US has about twice the area size of EU: 9.834.000 km² vs 4.476.000 km² but give or less, they all speak English there. In EU there are 28 states, speaking 24 languages, and not long ago it might have been a matter of life or death if you could tell them "please refrain from trying to chop my head off, I'll pay you a hefty amount if you do" in theirs Hence, the interest in understanding foreign cultures
English, Irish, a little Japanese, French, Latin, some ancient Greek and modern German, a very little Danish picked up from extended family on visits, a little Zimkezi plus Afrikaans and after all that, living in Spanish speaking countries for five years now, I have very very poor Spanish. It just will not go into my brain at what you would consider a reasonable organic rate in my later 40s. The French really does not like the Spanish. Now my English is getting worse but that is probably from conversing with mostly basic Americans in English. Limited space perhaps. Certainly a third gets more difficult as you age but the 4th is more famously difficult for anyone past their teens I understand.
I'm not so sure about this. As long as you actively use all four languages on a regular basis there is little chance that it fades from memory. A language which you won't use will surely fade from memory. I used to work in a quite international setting and used all four languages I knew on an almost daily basis, speaking with colleagues from various countries. Often on the spot changing from one language into another. However, after having left that position a couple of years ago I now notice that the fluency in at least 2 of those 4 languages has gone.