"It isn't like everyone everywhere speaks english on top of their first language" while it can never be everyone, every person I have interacted with from europe, brazil, india, etc has said English was pushed in school. so they are fluent in native tongue and english. And then you have Indians who often speak 4-5 languages besides english. Westerners just don't need to learn anything besides english, since everyone accomodates for english. Especially Air traffic control.