Languages and Linguistics

I just came across this thread while browsing.

I grew up in an area where it was predominantly Mexican. Spanish would have been useful for everyone to learn. In high school I took Spanish but I noticed that several of my more affluent peers wanted to learn French or Japanese (our school offered French, Japanese, German and American Sign Language) to satisfy their foreign language requirements. Maybe it was the teachers who taught the courses that influenced their decisions, or it could have been the school trips that the French learners got to go on. But, looking back, it did seem like those who came from a purely English speaking background (and from richer homesteads) had absolutely no interest in Spanish. This is based purely on observation, but there seemed (at least in my community) to be an elitist element to learning French and/or any language other than Spanish. Like I said, this is purely observational. Don't want to ruffle any feathers with this.