I don't think the discussion is practical. If we are all going to learn a new
language, why not Chinese? French is actually very easy for people who speak
Indo-European languages, but no easier for Chinese or Japanese speakers.
In any case, I think one of the reasons why e.g. Finnish and Swedish
participation is so good in the IETF is that in both countries English is
learned from an early age. Whether that's fair or not, it's very practical.
We can't all learn each others' languages, because there are too many of them.
So it makes sense to pick a language, and the unfairness that comes from
picking a language seems unavoidable. I don't see how picking a second
language would help. It would still be unfair to just as many people—the only
difference would be that a few more people would in some sense be privileged.
So I think that whatever accommodation successfully occurs, it will be an
accommodation involving people being more patient and understanding, not IETF
participants as a group learning more languages.