Languages create selections effects that influence our perceptions of other nations.

Most notably, the prevalence of English as a second language means that more people outside of the Anglo-sphere have access to a wide range of Anglo-sphere media and conversation partners, whereas countries that mostly speak English will have a more filtered selection of international sources. For example, there are more people in Slovakia who can read major US newspapers than people in the US who can read major Slovakian newspapers.

A second class of effects occur on the scale of individuals. Second-language use may stem from a direct ancestral link, as in the case of immigration. Second-language use is sometimes related to higher levels of education. Finally, individual interest can influence the choice of acquired second-languages.

I'm curious how this model seems to people living in non-English countries.

As a monolingual, it does seem clear that I'm getting a very filtered sampling of the residents of foreign countries, even relative to all the normal filtering that happens in communication. I frequently catch myself thinking "How can country X be so dysfunctional? All the people I've every met from X are highly-skilled immigrants and people who choose to hang out on the same English-language science and philosophy forums as me!". The dysfunction of an English-speaking country never puzzles me, since I've met far too many of the residents :)