A billion was originally a million million, going back to the 16th century. 'Bi' indicating the second power of a million, 'tri' indicating the third power, etc., millions of millions.
But then the French changed it to thousands, instead of millions, hence French 'billion' meaning a thousand millions, while elsewhere it was still meaning million of millions.
19th Century US adopted the French meaning, and then gradually the UK adopted it as well. But I'm not at all surprised if there are still languages using the original meaning.