French was an 'imperialistic' language as well, until not so long ago; France had a strong economic and diplomatic influence. You had good conferences in several domains in French. It's tough to loose this kind of influence, and I think the case is similar for countries like Japan or Italy. Young people in e.g. Poland seem to have it easier to adapt...

But your last sentence seems really harsh. Good communication skills are so much more important in real life to have work done.... I know a few good programmers in France for whom reading english is a lot of (sometimes necessary) pain. I'm sure more contacts with foreigners would give them a incredible confidence/motivation boost.