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I think this belongs into the Language Education sub forum. smile
At first, I feel I should point out that there are two main school systems in Israel: The Hebrew speaking system and the Arabic speaking system. Those split even more, but that has absolutely nothing to do with languages. Anyhow, on each system, the other language is compulsory. I don't what it's like exactly on the Arabic speaking system, but a friend said they all must take a matriculation exam in Hebrew by the end of their senior year. They study Hebrew grammar, that's for sure: I don't know if there's anything else in addition.
All Hebrew speaking students must take Arabic, but it seems like it is a bit different for each school: sometimes students start taking it on 7th grade, sometimes earlier. However, students are not obligated to take the matriculation exam in Arabic, yet, they can choose to. I am one of those who did that. smile Currently, we have 10 weekly hours of Arabic (double than any other class I take). We study grammar, classical literature (from the pre Islamic period and the Quran) and modern literature. In addition, we read parts of newspaper articles and practice the vocabulary.
English is compulsory for everyone. When I was on elementary school, we started studying on 4th grade; today, kids start studying English on kindergarten. All must take a matriculation exam in English, and there are 3 different levels of difficulty. I am lucky enough to take the highest one, and I don't know what exactly goes on on the lower two, but we study English grammar, English and American literature and essay writing, and have 4 weekly hours. Unlike with Arabic, everyone must speak English during the lesson.
In addition, it is possible to take a few more languages. I must point out that not all schools offer them, and usually they do not offer them all, yet, if a students finds a way to study those languages, he or she can take the test. Those languages are French, Yiddish, Italian, Amharic, Bulgarian, German, Dutch, Hungarian, Ladino, Latin, Spanish, Slovakian, Serbian, Polish, Portuguese, Persian, Czech, Romanian, Russian and Turkish.
All students must take an oral exam in addition to 3 written exams.

As for your second question, I believe everyone is highly exposed to English these days. People watch American movies and listen to American music. The usage of English in advertising is widespread. English is everywhere...

Pardon me for any hideous mistakes. I'm a bit.. "out of focus" at the moment. xp

In the United States most schools don't offer any foreign languages until high school(9th grade through 12th). They are almost never mandatory, but students seeking furthur education after high school will probably be required to take at least two years of a single foreign language. English is mandatory every year of school until high school(only three years of high school English are required here). In general there aren't may schools that offer languages besides Spanish and maby French unless you live in a larger town or city.

Here I am fortunate that we offer German, French, Latin, and Spanish. Most students in a foreign language take Spanish and aren't very serious about it, so they don't do very well. If you take one of the lesser picked languages such as German or Latin, chances are you'll end up with smarter people in your class or students that just try harder. Either way they get better grades in general.

We also offer Japanese and Russian if you can fit it in your schedule. It's nice for the students that can because they only have class three days a week(they get a free block of time when they don't have class) and they get college credit. But it doesn't fit into all of our salaries and school schedules.

Some schools in larger areas might offer Japanese and Russian at the high school, especially on the west coast. One of my cousins in Washington is taking Japanese right now as a high school sophmore(lucky girl).

In general, our school system isn't that great and the language part is no better until university/college. We really need to get students into langauges at a younger age and offer more languages.

Well, at the secondary school I went to French was mandatory for the first three years. After two years the people doing best (which, somehow, included me) could switch to doing Spanish instead - I think a few of the really good people were allowed to do both languages. But that was only about 3 people in my whole year.

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In my school we have three different language classes: Italian, French, and Spanish. The way we work it is that the first year you come to the school, you try out all three languages, three months, one a month. Then at the end of the school year, you pick which one you want next year.

Wow. I see there's a lot of fuss about English. Mexico here is a largely monolingual place. ~25% of the population can understand English, and of that 25%, only ~30% can understand and speak English at a functional level.

This is because English in public schools is mandatory until high school. Seems to make sense... until you find out that the average Mexican schooling level is 7th grade. Now you see why it doesn't makes sense. Since 50% of the population are working class, too often, the kids must leave school and work for their family. English should be taught since elementary school, goddammit!

Private schools have a much higher level of English. If you enter a Mexican private school just knowing English, you'll be able to talk with at least 50% of the students. There are even some bilingual schools where classes are in Spanish in even days, and English in odd days. They usually offer another language, too.

However, I've seen many people not realizing that speaking another language can help you greatly in assuring a better future, and as a result, they don't take English seriously. Other people just find it impossible to learn a second language, and even if they're exposed to English for quite a long time, they will end up with a basic level. A couple of friends only speak a little bit of English, even though they've been on it through middle and high school. One of them actually asked me to bring a fake ID to the TOEFL test and do it for him. I refused, of course.

I live in the United States and things are a little complicated where I live, but it goes something like this:

Spanish is a required second language in first grade through fifth grade. At this time, English is a required language for anyone who immigrates that isn't already fluent. It's assumed that non-immigrants are already fluent, but really, who can tell anymore?.

Then, in 6th through 8th most schools offer Spanish and perhaps a few other languages (usually something like French or German), this is up to the school and there are no requirments.

In highschool, Spanish, French, Latin, and usually German are always an option (sometims Japanese, Chinese, and other languages, but again, this is up to the school) and all students must take at least two semesters of a foriegn language.

I'm homeschooled though so technically, I do whatever my mommy tells me sweatdrop