digitalmouse wrote:

here in Germany, they start learning (atleast english) very young (4th-5th grade sometimes, depending on the local school system) and continue learning right up through the end of highschool.

face it, if most american kids have a choice, they probably would not bother to take more than the bare minimum in secondary languages, and afterwards most are probably grateful to forget what they learned.

Also, lots of students might just try to learn the bare minimum necessary to pass the class.

It took me about three seconds to find this:
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/german.htm

Come on, people, it's like you actively want to be fooled all the time.