I think what she was trying to say in a polite way was that the kid sounded a little phony, and the activities seemed all over the place and picked to make an impressive resume rather than out of genuine interest. Based on the experience with my two kids, in HS they had 1-2 interests and fit their activities around that. Also, after a certain age, they were mostly motivated by the prospect of socializing with their existing friends or making more friends. Both my kids are very passionate about Spanish mostly because they spent their summers in camps in Spain which they loved and where the majority of the kids did not speak English. My daughter also did Amigos in Costa Rica so knowing Spanish opened the door to another culture.
I also have a hard time imagining that a kid will spontaneously decide to learn German for no reason. It would be different if he was going there. Anyway, it is easy to judge a hypothetical kid.