The Cost of Learning a Second Language
Learning a new language can open up a world of possibilities and opportunities, offering the chance to connect with people from all over the world.
Whether you’re looking to buy property, move abroad, travel or simply learn additional skills, language learning opens up a wealth of possibilities.
However, learning languages takes time, resources and money, which can cause limitations as to the languages available to learn.
To help you choose where to begin, we calculated the average cost to learn the top languages spoken across the world. Analysing the average cost of a 30 minute lesson on the language learning site italki.com, along with the number of; global speakers, countries the language is spoken in, and the search demand for learning the language – we revealed which languages are the most expensive to learn.
The data revealed that Korean, Japanese and Mandarin are the most expensive languages to learn, while Italian, Swedish and Hindi are the most affordable.
The True Cost of Learning Languages
| # | Language | No. Speakers | No. Countries (official language) | Demand (Google searches/ month) | Avg hours for fluency | Avg lesson cost (30mins) | Total cost to become fluent |
| 1 | Korean | 81,700,000 | 2 | 32,320 | 1540 | £7.75 | £41,888 |
| 2 | Japanese | 123,400,000 | 1 | 47,830 | 1540 | £9.43 | £32,094 |
| 3 | Mandarin | 1,100,000,000 | 5 | 51,190 | 1540 | £4.01 | £29,044 |
| 4 | Bengali | 272,800,000 | 4 | 53,530 | 840 | £10.82 | £21,554 |
| 5 | Finnish | 5,600,000 | 1 | 64,030 | 840 | £11.63 | £20,210 |
| 6 | Hebrew | 9,300,000 | 1 | 48,360 | 840 | £4.41 | £17,791 |
| 7 | Greek | 274,000,000 | 25 | 17,140 | 840 | £12.83 | £13,583 |
| 8 | Polish | 5,300,000 | 1 | 55,450 | 840 | £8.02 | £12,749 |
| 9 | Hungarian | 13,100,000 | 2 | 36,470 | 840 | £5.61 | £12,432 |
| 10 | Ukrainian | 40,600,000 | 1 | 63,180 | 840 | £4.21 | £11,676 |
| 11 | Hungarian | 12,600,000 | 1 | 27,600 | 840 | £4.96 | £11,626 |
| 12 | Ukrainian | 33,000,000 | 1 | 39,620 | 840 | £6.15 | £11,575 |
| 13 | Bulgarian | 7,700,000 | 1 | 36,500 | 840 | £10.42 | £11,424 |
| 14 | French | 309,800,000 | 29 | 54,820 | 480 | £5.35 | £11,165 |
| 15 | Danish | 5,600,000 | 1 | 51,390 | 480 | £13.60 | £10,992 |
| 16 | Spanish | 559,100,000 | 21 | 46,670 | 480 | £4.01 | £10,387 |
| 17 | German | 133,200,000 | 6 | 59,240 | 840 | £4.01 | £10,332 |
| 18 | Russian | 255,000,000 | 4 | 26,660 | 840 | £6.95 | £9,425 |
| 19 | Turkish | 90,000,000 | 2 | 49,310 | 840 | £6.89 | £8,988 |
| 20 | Romanian | 24,500,000 | 2 | 48,920 | 480 | £9.22 | £8,851 |
| 21 | Dutch | 24,500,000 | 6 | 48,570 | 480 | £9.08 | £8,717 |
| 22 | Indonesian | 199,100,000 | 1 | 59,630 | 840 | £7.40 | £8,333 |
| 23 | Portuguese | 263,600,000 | 9 | 52,480 | 480 | £4.01 | £7,699 |
| 24 | English | 1,500,000,000 | 67 | 131,900 | 480 | £6.92 | £7,440 |
| 25 | Urdu | 231,700,000 | 6 | 25,800 | 840 | £10.59 | £7,073 |
| 26 | Swahili | 71,600,000 | 4 | 11,135,790 | 840 | £12.03 | £6,737 |
| 27 | Italian | 67,900,000 | 4 | 65,670 | 480 | £11.45 | £3,850 |
| – | Swedish | 13,100,000 | 2 | 45,700 | 480 | £13.28 | £3,850 |
Our data reveals that the most expensive languages are those that are the hardest to learn. Korean, Japanese and Mandarin require an average of 1,540 hours to reach fluency, therefore while the cost of a 30 minute lesson may not be the most expensive, the total cost adds up.
Learning Korean could set you back an impressive £41,88, however it can open up connections with 81,700,000 people, along with a wealth of film, music and TV without relying on subtitles or translation.
In contrast, European languages like Italian, Swedish, English and Portuguese costs are offset by the fact the languages are considered relatively easy to learn, with an average of 480 learning hours to reach fluency.
However, other European languages such as German, Greek and Finnish take the average learner longer to master, with learning clocking 840 hours to become confident and comfortable with the language.
Looking at the data we then decided to calculate what the return is on your investment, meaning how many countries can your new language take you to.
The Most Cost Effective Languages to Learn
| # | Language | No. of speakers | No. Countries (official language) | Total cost to become fluent | Investment per Country |
| 1 | English | 1,500,000,000 | 67 | £7,440 | £111 |
| 2 | French | 309,800,000 | 29 | £11,165 | £385 |
| 3 | Arabic | 274,000,000 | 25 | £13,583 | £543 |
| 4 | Spanish | 559,100,000 | 21 | £10,387 | £495 |
| 5 | Portuguese | 263,600,000 | 9 | £7,699 | £855 |
| 6 | German | 133,200,000 | 6 | £10,332 | £1,722 |
| – | Dutch | 24,500,000 | 6 | £8,717 | £1,453 |
| – | Urdu | 231,700,000 | 6 | £7,073 | £1,179 |
| 9 | Mandarin | 1,100,000,000 | 5 | £29,044 | £5,809 |
| 10 | Swahili | 71,600,000 | 4 | £6,737 | £1,684 |
English, French and Arabic offer the most return for your investment in learning the language. With 67 countries recognising English as its official language, you’re investing £111 in each country you can visit and speak the language.
29 countries recognise French as its official language, while 25 countries speak Arabic, meaning you invest £385 and £543 respectively.
The countries with the least return on investment regarding the number of countries you can utilise your new language in are Japanese, Finnish and Hebrew.
Search Demand for Learning English
While learning a new language is exciting, teaching languages can also be a great way to earn extra income. It can offer the opportunity to create a work schedule that suits your needs or move to a different country and teach full time.
We analysed Google searches for the phrase “learn English” in the UK in 28 different languages to understand which native speakers are most interested in learning English.
| # | Language | Google searches/ month |
| 1 | Hindi | 11,135,790 |
| 2 | Swedish | 65,670 |
| 3 | Finnish | 64,030 |
| 4 | Polish | 63,180 |
| 5 | Indonesian | 59,630 |
| 6 | German | 59,240 |
| 7 | Norwegian | 55,450 |
| 8 | French | 54,820 |
| 9 | Bengali | 53,530 |
| 10 | Portuguese | 52,480 |
Hindi speakers, Swedish speakers and Finnish speakers are conducting the most searches for learning English in the past 12 months, with average searches ranging from 11,000,000 to 50,000 a month.
The average cost of teaching an English lesson for 30 minutes is £7.75, meaning Brits could earn £31 for 2 hours of teaching a day.
Alternatively, if you are bilingual you could earn even more by teaching multiple languages, for example Norwegian and English speakers could earn £42 for 2 hours of teaching.
However, to become a teacher you must be accredited with a teaching certificate, university degree in language teaching, a licence to teach or proof of employment at a teaching institution.
There are various online certifications available including TEFL courses that open up opportunities to teach English online, in person in the UK and all over the world.
Adult Lessons vs Children’s Lessons
Learning a second language from an early age can enhance problem-solving skills, along with multi-tasking and higher levels of concentration. Often compared to sponges, children’s brains are designed to absorb information at a faster rate than adults, meaning a path to proficient fluency is far easier when you’re younger.
However, different maturity levels will mean different learning styles, therefore we compared the cost of teaching adults vs children (lessons for ages 3-15) on italki.com.
| Language | Adult lesson cost | Child lesson cost | Difference |
| Danish | £11.45 | £21.38 | 86.7% |
| Dutch | £9.08 | £17.37 | 91.3% |
| Finnish | £12.03 | £16.84 | 40% |
| German | £6.15 | £16.04 | 160.8% |
| Korean | £13.60 | £12.45 | -8.5% |
| Ukrainian | £6.89 | £12.03 | 30.5% |
| Romanian | £9.22 | £12.03 | 74.6% |
| French | £11.63 | £11.17 | -4% |
| Italian | £4.01 | £11.11 | 177.1% |
| Indonesian | £4.96 | £10.82 | 118.1% |
| Swedish | £4.01 | £10.42 | 159.9% |
| Hebrew | £10.59 | £9.35 | -11.7% |
| Polish | £6.95 | £8.82 | 26.9% |
| English | £7.75 | £8.31 | 7.2% |
| Japanese | £10.42 | £8.11 | -22.2% |
| Spanish | £10.82 | £8.02 | -25.9% |
| Mandarin | £9.43 | £7.95 | -15.7% |
| Portuguese | £8.02 | £6.66 | -17% |
| Turkish | £5.35 | £6.47 | 20.9% |
| Greek | £7.40 | £6.33 | -14.5% |
| Arabic | £4.41 | £6.20 | 40.6% |
| Russian | £5.61 | £6.01 | 7.1% |
| Hindi | £4.01 | £5.11 | 27.4% |
| Urdu | £4.21 | £4.01 | -4.8% |
| Bengali | £12.83 | £4.01 | -68.7% |
The data revealed that many languages cost double to teach children than adults, with Danish, Dutch and Finnish costing the most at £21.38, £17.37 and £16.84 respectively. However, Italian sees the biggest increase with children lessons costing 177.1% more than adult lessons.
French and Urdu are some of the only languages where the prices are mirrored, while it is more affordable for children to learn Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Greek and Hebrew than it is for adults.
Methodology
Analysing the most spoken languages in the world we refined our study to the top 28 languages available to learn on italki.com. We then collated the average cost of a 30 minute trial lesson for each language and calculated the average.
Number of speakers and languages which recognise the language as its official language were sourced from Ethnologue and the fluency hours of each language were sourced from State.gov.
Search data for each language was sourced from Google Trends.
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