I grew up in a country where we had one day of English at school from the age of 6 and then from when we entered high school we added either French or German to the mix as well, so we ended up with 3 languages by the time we finished school. Not only did it open up a world of cultures and educational elements we would have otherwise missed, I think that having a couple of languages makes me a much more well-rounded person too. While I understand the strain on the educational system here in Australia having my mother work as a primary school teacher, I think the relaxed attitude on learning another language needs to be addressed. However freedom for the school to choose the language makes sense. I can converse in 6 languages and none of them Asian languages but this has not affected me working in that region of the world nor having friends from the area.

So for what its worth, I think a second language should be compulsory but not necessarily an Asian one