The Necessity of Learning a Second Language

I don't think I would be discussing this topic, if I didn't love linguistics and that I didn't experience multiple times of miscommunication or tension due to a language barrier throughout the course of my time in Germany.
So today, I just missed my tram to Bonn by near minutes. It was probably very funny to someone to see me sprinting across the street to catch it, but, nevertheless, I was absolutely mortified that I was so close but yet so far from being able to make it. Luckily, the 604 bus had just pulled up, but I had no clue where I needed to stop in order to make it to the new AIB. So after stepping on the bus, I ask in English 'does this bus go to the hauptbahnhof'. Because I knew if I could make it there, I could easily navigate the city and not get into the situation of being lost without any access to a map. Being the older gentleman he was, he had no clue what I was saying and proceeded in German to say 'ich verstehe nicht' or 'I don't understand you'. This quickly led me to be panicked because I wanted to make it to class on time, but I also wanted him to understand me, so I would know for sure where I was going. But for the sake of time, I gave up and sat on the bus until it rolled to a stop that looked semi-close to AIB. Luckily, I was right, and I made it to class a little late, but not the 20 minutes late I would have been if I had waited for the next tram.
Now, if I was unlucky, I could have gotten extremely lost, which would have been awful not only for me, but for the AIB staff that would have had to find me. I really wished in those moments that I knew more German, so that I could ask questions like 'Ist dies der Bahn fur den hauptbahnhof' or does this train go to the central station. It also makes me mad that this problem could have potentially been avoided if second languages were taught sooner and more extensively than they are currently in the United States.
Granted, the first secondary language that would have been taught would have been Spanish due to geographical location, but even knowing that language would open a whole world of understanding. Because, in this point in time, there still exists the subtle racism of wishing someone could speak just like us without any thinking that they feel the exact same way. I feel that Americans, especially Texans, view on the growing Latino population would not be so negative, if we could all speak and communicate with each other easily in either English or Spanish. This begs the question why doesn't it happen, which I can think of a few reasons why.
For starters, teachers don't have time nor the funding to teach a second language. I had actually started learning Spanish in 3rd grade before the school had to cut the program due to funding. If I had continued from that point, I would probably be close to fluent, which would have opened so many doors in terms of study abroad and job options for me later in life. Another reason is that I feel like American students don't care to learn a second language. I do believe Americans are some of the most overworked group of people in the list of first world countries, which can make language not as appealing to learn since a good portion of learning a language is memorization and grammar structure. But when walking into a foreign language classroom in the United States, you can almost feel it in the air that students show little to no interest in learning the language, from my experience. This could stem from a multitude of reasons such as feeling entitled that everyone should speak English, lack of drive to learn new subjects, not feeling smart enough or having the time to learn a language, and even feeling like since they will never travel to that country that there's no point in learning the language.
Now the next question would be, how do we motivate students to want to learn a different language? I feel this is where the problem lies, and also where there are numerous approaches to this answer. In my high school, you would be given a medal for completing a certain number of languages courses, but these courses are not as aggressive in my opinion and are laughable in comparison to how the Europeans teach their young a different language. So at the end of the day, I can only focus on myself and my goal to becoming fluent in the German language. If I ever do have children, I would definitely want them to learn a second language. But, in my opinion, I think it would be very unlikely to convince a majority of the American population that learning another language is beneficial without solving some of the larger social issues that are more prominent today.