Study reveals Romanian is the cheapest language to learn

A recent study has identified the expenses needed to learn various languages fluently, with Korean ranking as the most expensive and Romanian being the most budget-friendly.

Romanian is the most cost-friendly language for beginners, requiring a EUR 14,270 investment to become fully fluent. Estimated to need 600 hours to learn, the median cost for an hour-long lesson stands at EUR 3.79. While some lessons are as cheap as EUR 7 per 50-minute session, more experienced tutors can charge up to EUR 32.65.

With over 30 million native speakers worldwide, approximately 4 million more speak Romanian as their second or third language.

The research, carried out by the online education discovery platform Internet of Learning, analyzed the learning expenses across 66 languages to determine which would cost the most. By factoring in the time needed to master the language, the study examined the median expenses of online tutors to calculate the overall cost of becoming fluent.

The study revealed that Korean is the costliest language to master, with the cost for beginner-level speakers to achieve fluency estimated at approximately EUR 130,820. As it is recommended to dedicate a minimum of 2,200 hours to learning, spanning 88 weeks, a 50-minute session would set you back a median cost of EUR 49.56. Though lessons can be as little as EUR 7 per session, some premium tutors may charge up to EUR 92.12.

Around 80.7 million people worldwide speak Korean as their mother tongue.

Arabic ranks second-most expensive at EUR 124,670, requiring 2,200 hours of learning to master fully. Despite being behind Spanish and French in terms of available tutors, Arabic still offers a significant pool, with session fees ranging from EUR 2.33 to EUR 92.12 for a 50-minute lesson.

With a total of 372.7 million people worldwide speaking Arabic as their mother tongue, Europe is home to almost 6 million speakers alone.

In third place is Mandarin, requiring beginners to invest EUR 123,130 over 88 weeks of learning, and a median cost of EUR 46.64 per session. Following in the fourth position is Japanese, with a total cost of EUR 103,120, and then Hebrew takes the fifth spot at a total cost of EUR 66,180.

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