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I am an American, but I grew up in Europe. Europeans have no concept at all of the size or breadth of the US and how useless learning most European languages would be here. 
When I was a kid in Germany, I could ride my bike for a couple hours and be in France where I would immediately be marked as a complete alien because I only spoke German and American English, extremely little French. I could ride a couple hours south and be in switzerland, where they spoke a recognizably different dialect of German. On my BIKE mind you. 
In the US, my wife and I moved from Santa Cruz to Seattle a few years ago. Same coast, but the cultures are only slightly different actually. It was two days, 10 hours each, of driving. Just to get from one state to the other, on a highway. We were hauling ass too. With that amount of driving, my father would leisurely drive us from Moldova to western Germany and it would feel like we had travelled between planets culturally. With time to spare. And guess what, everybody at the end of that california-washington drive still spoke english with only minorly different accents
Honestly I could write a book on this sort of thing, Europeans and Americans have been brought together so closely, that we assume we are more alike than we actually are. We agree on a lot of the fundamentals, but it was a culture shock when I finally came back to the US. 
To that note, a lot of Americans do speak more than one in certain regions. Lots of Americans speak Spanish as their first language in fact
As an American who is only fluent in one language, I don't blame people for not being multilingual. But I do blame people who get weirdly mad about other languages existing. >

My wife had a coworker who would get mad if people near her weren't speaking English. And this was at a business that had more native Korean speakers than native English speakers >

In the middle of Hungary people get upset if someone don't speak hungarian. And complain barely audible that everyone should speak hungarian who dare to come to this country. lol >

Imagine if Colorado spoke one language, Arizona spoke another, Texas spoke their own, Florida had their own, etc. If America was like that, I guarantee the average American would know at least 2 languages. 
This is basically how Europe is. >

Ist's even worse. Almost every region in Europe has some special accents and dialects. 
There's at least 10 different germans. (29 different in total with Switzerland and Austria according to Wikipedia)
France and England are also really bad. >

I believe that is similar to how the English language/accents change if you move across the US. >

I never understood the hate for not Learning other languages. In Europe, you can have multiple countries within a few hours that all have different languages. You drive for 2+ days in the states and you are still in the states. The only language that might even come close to having some utility is Spanish and that is only useful if you live in the few the few states that boarder Mexico. I see almost no point in dedicating time to learning a language if you will never have anyone to talk to. 
Sure I could spend my time learning the German language to prove I am smart but if I have zero Germans around me then what the point? >

Agreed. Like it or not, English is the most international language so, yeah, you’d be dumb to not try and learn it - if you get the choice. 
I was born in Sweden so English is my 2nd language, but by age 15 pretty much everyone speaks English more or less fluently. Mostly thanks to that we don’t dub English movies or tv shows, so you get a “free” English lesson every time you turn the tv on. 
But I don’t go around being all pompous about my bilingualism. It is like OP said, it is a necessity. If Swedish was the “world language” I’d probably not speak English.
As comparison, I tried taking both German and French in school and failed miserably lol >

I don't think the issue is Americans being close minded, it's just that the vast majority of us don't have much of an incentive to learn another language. It's kind of a shitty excuse, but it is the truth. I'm bilingual because I grew up with a second language spoken in the house, but that's not the case for the majority of the country. 
So it's not like Americans don't want to, it's just that for the average citizen, there's not really a reason to. >

Where would you even encounter it is another issue. If your family speaks English, and your school speaks English, and your stores speak English, and your media is all in English, and the internet is majority English, then where exactly are you encountering anything else to practice? My district didn't even offer intro foreign language courses until high School. sure duolingo is a thing but without practice it's more difficult to stick >

I’m English and living in France and try very hard to speak and learn French, however 9 times out of 10 the person will just reply in English (even if I keep trying French) or they’ll refuse to speak slower and get shitty that I can’t understand and then angrily say it in English >

Americans don't learn other languages because they don't need to as English is considered the lingua franca.
But if an English speaker wants to live abroad, he or she must learn the local language of that country. >

At least trying when going abroad is the polite thing to do, but I've found that a surprising amount of people will suddenly reveal they're fluent in English after hearing me speak their language with all the eloquence of a toddler. >

I think it is like a dick size contest. Some people like to compete with number of languages they learn and brag about it. I can do two fluently because yes, it is a necessity, I am first gen immigrant in USA. I don't believe me knowing more languages than some USA born individuals making me somehow better or more knowledgeable or more whatever those terms people like to use to make themselves feel more superior. >

My brain just didn’t work well with learning new languages, in terms of English I’m pretty solid at speaking and writing correctly with a decently sized vocabulary, but the second I try to learn a new language it just comes extremely slowly from translating what I’m saying. I can learn a bunch of words but can only say or write them after I translate each one individually >

It's very very difficult to get rid of an American accent when speaking other languages and as a result, a lot of people make fun of Americans when they try to speak a different language or only reply in English. My old HS had international student boarders and a lot of those students spoke a bit of the languages from the countries that surrounded theirs because they would visit those countries or had friends from there. That is far less common in the US so it makes it difficult to really learn conversational skills in a different language. I think a lot of people just don't see a very practical reason for it besides it being a useful skill in some workplaces. I say this as someone who really loves learning different languages. It's just tough to find ways to use it without going totally out of my way. >

Is the saying not closed minded? I wasn’t going to say anything but people are repeating it in the comments >

I honestly blame our educational system. In my experience growing up, I was only required to take two semesters of a foreign language class through grades 9-12 and none in the first 8 years of schooling. And those classes did a piss poor job and were no where near enough to speak beyond the 2nd grade, and that’s being generous.
If our educational system required children to learn a second language alongside English through the entire 12 years they’ll will be in school, I could see more Americans being fluent in two or more languages. >

Americans just don't generally HAVE to learn other languages.  The only languages spoken in the USA other than English are spoken by minority groups (that are often historically marginalized groups like Hispanics, Native Americans, etc). 
In Europe however you often live very close to people that speak other languages, and it's not a dominating culture vs oppressed culture relationship.  Sometimes you run into that sort of thing (like how the English exterminated the Scottish, Irish and Welsh languages), but the languages Europeans tend to learn are the dominant languages of neighboring countries.  
Most Europeans learn English (as it's become the Lingua Franca), but when you live in say, Germany...you live in an entire country that's geographically the size of Texas.  Germans are surrounded by Belgians, French, Dutch, Slovaks, Czechs, Poles Hungarians and Italians all within a few hours drive.  There's simply NOTHING like that in the states.
It makes sense to learn the other languages, you get to use them and you get rewarded for using them (ordering in restaurants, etc).
In the states if I learn German I'M NEVER GOING TO USE IT...maybe if I went out of my way and found some Amish communities I could practice...but aside from that I would NEVER speak German.  The only language that makes any real sense to learn in the USA for most people besides English would be Spanish...but culturally we have this expectation that it's the Spanish speakers that have to learn and use English, not the other way around. >

Other people have already touched upon it, but Americans can easily get away with only speaking English. It does help to speak Spanish in Texas, California, Florida, etc, but it is not necessary. Our school system doesn't offer foreign language courses until students are 13/14. >

Never heard anyone state close-mindedness due to a lack of speaking more than English. The issue with an embarrasing number of ppl in the US is that they know almost NOTHING about the outside world. Funniest moments are watching them point countries out on a world map. >

People in Afghanistan speak more dialects than like any European, too lol >

If it’s not important for you to know other languages yeah it makes sense why you’d only know English. I will look down on you though if you only speak one language and make fun of people with English as a second language who are learning and not quite good at it yet though. >

This is true but this does not absolve Americans from any responsibility at all of trying to learn an foreign language. I’m (essentially) bilingual and only one or two other close friends of mine are. When I travel I meet people from all over who speak English fluently. It’s weird that we don’t have it as a priority in our culture. >

Responsibility? Maybe Spanish among border states but with a country the size of Europe there’s no real reason to learn another when literally everyone around you speaks the same language. But yes, we do take foreign languages in school. Retention and how much an individual cares is a different story. And I say that as someone who speaks Italian, French, and understands Spanish. I like learning languages but it’s in no way an obligation or responsibility to do so for me >

Interesting >

If I had to learn a language in school I would have failed, speech impediment's a bitch.