Recently returned from a study semester in the Netherlands, In my corridor there was
Spanish, Italian, Greek, Cypriot, Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Indian, Chinese, Brazilian, German, Swiss, Dutch and Polish, and myself of course, British.
Only 2 people spoke one of the others languages to a fluent conversational level, everyone spoke English, pretty much all conversations were in English, and most of the international lecture program was in English.
English is fast becoming an international auxiliary language at least in Europe, outside of Europe it's still patchy but I firmly believe it will become the international second language. I don't say that out of some weird nationalist ideal, but out of simple logic, how many Chinese business men are trying to learn English? How many English speaking Business men are trying to learn Mandarin or Cantonese?
How many Indian students and rich families learn English? How many native English speakers are learning Indian? (excuse my ignorance of the different languages within India, i know there are several, but I don't even know their names)
Through the general unwillingness of a lot of Native English speakers to learn another language, speakers of other tongues are pretty much having to learn English if they want to deal with or function effectively in the west.
Ich Studiere Deutsch ...Aber Ich Bin Nicht Sehr Gut.