I notice among people I talk to more enthusiasm toward learning French than Spanish. This confuses me; my feeling is that Spanish unlocks far more countries and speakers than French does and so is a more natural first choice.

What do people think motivates this choice?

Were the people largely American? Spanish is often implied as a lower class language especially in the US. Whereas french was the language of the nobility for a long time even in non french speaking areas and exotic to Americans. Similar dynamic in Belgium.

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Actually more Asians than Americans; Americans seem to have less interest in learning any new language at all.