I think, to be honest, there's only one country in the Northern Hemisphere that doesn't routinely teach it's students to speak at least the basics in at least one other language. (I actually don't know about Australia & New Zeeland, but they are so far from anyone else that it really makes no difference).<br/><br/>French people learn English and German. English learn French and German (but usually don't bother remembering it). Germans learn English and French. The Dutch learn English and German. Etc.<br/><br/>I don't see this changing much in H's new society. English is still the<em>de facto lingua franca</em>, taught in schools across the world. It is then language of business, the language of the internet, the language of international travel - all instructions to air craft in flight by air traffic controllers are given in English, as are instructions to ships at sea by coastguards...<br/><br/>I agree with H. I think we just assume everyone speaks English unless otherwise indicated. Moi? je parle un petite peut de français, et si nécessaire je utilise Google Translate....!