I'm an American living in Norway, so I can compare the systems a bit for you, at least from my experience: In Norway, kids start learning their second language

I'm an American living in Norway, so I can compare the systems a bit for you, at least from my experience: In Norway, kids start learning their second language (English) in First Grade, and their third language (Spanish, French and German are most common) in 7th Grade. It seems clear to me that this is bound to give better results than starting in 9th Grade, as is common in the US. Personally, I always found languages hard to learn, and I'm still clumsy in my spoken Norwegian, even after 12 years here. On the other hand, my children are completely bilingual, and became so effortlessly. I think it's a shame that the plasticity of young brains is wasted on a single language, in most cases, and that the task of learning a foreign tongue is delayed until such an age as to maximize the amount of effort required.