@smudges, maybe he just wanted to talk to us.
When I was in high school aeons ago, the smart boys were encouraged to take German in order to read scientific papers that were published only auf Deutsch. I took it for the literature and the character of the language itself.
Students typically preferred French for the literature, for travel, and for the character of the language, which is prettier than German.
Spanish was generally thought of as an easy A to meet a language requirement. This was long before Spanish became, in effect, our second language.
At my school, Russian was offered in a special preschool class for people who were really determined. One of my classmates who took that early class grew up to become (I think) An American spy.
But Russians had to keep an eye on us, including with their elaborate spy network. This was the post-Sputnik era of Cold War, U2, and Khruschchev. They had to learn English. We were—and still are—mostly , despite all our diversity, too ethnoscentric to get serious about learning other languages. By now, no matter where in the world you are from, you can speak to other foreigners in English.