Let's see...

If we're talking about diplomacy, English is a convenient way to communicate with other leaders, but not "official". In the UN, as far as I remember, both French and English are official languages, like for the Olympic games (all the announcements are made in 3 languages: English, French, local).

For scientific communication, English is a <i>de facto</i> standard, but not something official. Until roughly the Second WW, French was the language the most widely used to publish scientific papers. After that, we lost a lot of influence over to the USA, and English took over.

For difficulty, Japanese is by far more complicated than English. I'll admit French for foreigners is more complex than English, because our pronunciation differs, and because we like having a lot of different rules and exceptions. That's what made it "fun" to learn in Primary school.

And Jojo, good thing you only have to say it, because you still can't spell correctly that phrase. xD