system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do Americans learn a foreign language so late in their educational career(i.e. high school and college) while foreigners are practically fluent in English by the time they're in their late teens?

And on a related note, why is it that American schools only offer 2 or 3, maybe 4 languages (usually French, Spanish, German and maybe Latin)?
gpt
Part of it is that in Europe it's more important to learn other languages because of proximity.  Look at Germany France and Belgium.  The countries that all have different *majority* languages and they all touch. 

In the US we have a one of Canada's provinces to the north that speaks French and then then entire height of our county before you get to Mexico where people speak Spanish.