Unless your company funds your instruction, picking up a language can be financially daunting.
One-on-one Spanish-language classes at Interlingua in Phoenix range from $1,550 to $7,000. Group classes, which have three to five students per class, range from $550 to $2,200.

"Normally, people like to come to the school (for group classes) because it's immersion, and everybody speaks it," said Yolima Otalora, owner and teacher.

Otalora said being able to speak Spanish is a "critical" skill in this community, and a person who has never tried to learn the language could become fluent in Spanish after 200 hours of instruction, she added.

"If you are performing in any field in this community, you must know both languages, and it's not that difficult," she said.

At other schools, a 10-week group class for two to four students costs about $1,500 for Berlitz, an international provider of language instruction.

The Boston Language Institute charges $499 per level for its group Mandarin classes. It provides five levels of instruction plus a conversational class. Arabic will set you back $599 per level.

"In most cases, people come here of their own volition ... sometimes reimbursed by their companies, sometimes not," said Siri Karm Singh Khalsa, president of the institute.



Sidebar to: "Bilingualism may boost career, but it's costly"