The Variable of Time
§720  hours of  INTENSIVE  study  at  the  Foreign Service  Institute  for  adults  with  high  aptitude to  become  proficient.
§(Omaggio-Hadley, 2001)
§1000’s of contact hours to achieve the ability to  function beyond the TOURIST  level  in   Spanish and French;  4-5 times longer for other                                languages such as
Arabic, Japanese, Korean,
Mandarin, or Russian.   
(Brown, 1997)