[koreth1]

Globally, a very small percentage of bilingual people fit the "I decided to learn a different language and then used it to temporarily live in another country very different from my own" model. Much more common is, "I speak my local regional language and also the official national language, and so does everyone else in my community."

[gehatare]

Not necessarily living in another country, but a large part of the world, especially in industrialized countries, learns English. Neither regional nor national, but of course because it is the lingua franca.

[mdp2021]

Thank happiness that we have the World Wide Web (literally suggestive) and global publishing trade then, if some people do not move much physically.

Multilingualism is an enabler.

[quickthrower2]

"They forced us to learn it in school" is another one. E.g. what I heard about Lebanon: And by forced, I mean you don't just do a French lesson, you learn other non-language lessons in other languages.

[MobiusHorizons]

True but many people also use that ability to travel to the local large city.