1. i did, yeah,
2. it had just changed the year i started that it wasn't compulsory, as far as i know it still isn't but i could be wrong
3. um, when i did it it was spanish, french, or german. unless latin counts as one. also i think we've just started teaching punjabi at our school too...
i'm out of touch with the foreign languages thing, i did French for GCSE and that was that. ironically (well, maybe not ironically) i hated french whilst i was studying it, but the past 2 years i haven't i actually really love the language.