The ability to understand and speak a foreign language exponentially improves the travel experience, so linguistic preparation is as important as planning and packing.

Learning a language can be relatively painless, even fun, for people with an aptitude, especially if they studied the language when they were young.

Of course, some languages are simply more difficult than others for native English-speakers to learn, because their writing and sounds differ so widely, said Renee Jourdenais, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Language & Educational Linguistics at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

At the Monterey, Calif.-based Defense Language Institute's Foreign Language Center, dedicated to getting State and Defense department diplomatic personnel up to speed before a foreign posting, basic French and Spanish courses designed to give students a modest level of proficiency last 25 weeks. Czech and Russian programs run for 47 weeks; beginner Mandarin Chinese and Arabic courses take 63 weeks.

Classroom study, in a group or one-on-one, tends to be expensive. For travelers embarking on relatively brief trips, their needs often can be adequately addressed by the survival dictionaries in most guidebooks that can teach them how to say "Hello" and "Goodbye," "Where is ... ?" and "How much?" in the time it takes to fly from Los Angeles to Berlin.

Travelers who have more elaborate goals should seek methods suited to their motivations, said Joan Rubin, co-author of "How to Be a More Successful Language Learner."

"Learning to work in a language is a very demanding task," Rubin said. "For an English-speaker, it will take 700 hours to learn to work in Spanish and double that in Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Arabic."

In other words, the way you prepare for a trip depends on what you want to get out of it.

"If you have the time and money, a week or two of total immersion is the ideal solution," said John Bennett of Berlitz International (www.berlitz.us). The Princeton, N.J.-based company pioneered the total-immersion method of foreign-language study, which means only the language being studied is spoken in class. A week of intensive private study costs $2,500, but after such a program, travelers should be able to ask for directions, talk on the phone and follow basic conversations, Bennett said.

For the traveler who plans to visit a foreign country for business or pleasure several times, 10-week programs of semiprivate study, two times a week, should be sufficient to navigate without a dictionary, Bennett said. The price starts at $700.

Taking classes is like having a personal trainer, while do-it-yourself approaches, such as tapes, CDs and online learning programs, require discipline. Berlitz offers these self-teaching options, but others are available.

Among those is Paris-based Assimil (www.assimil.com), which has tapes and CDs in 69 languages and dialects, from Breton to Vietnamese. Assimil was founded in 1929 to teach English to French-speakers and has become one of Europe's more highly regarded foreign-language study programs.

Assimil taps the intuitive language-acquiring ability of children to get people thinking in a foreign language. Prices for beginner-level packages, including a book and several CDs, are about $50 to $100.

Computers enable other potent language-learning options, among them CD-ROM and online subscription programs such as those offered by Rosetta Stone (www.rosettastone.com), which is based in Minneapolis. This company devised a program to link computer images and sounds to words and phrases, forgoing grammar drills and memorization. The level-one French CD-ROM costs $195; access to it on the Internet costs $49.95 a month.

Rick Steves, who travels widely to research his "Europe Through the Back Door" guidebook series, favors hiring a translator/guide locally through tourist bureaus, especially on short visits to places where English isn't spoken. Guides can take you wandering, give meaning to your sightseeing and help you get as much out of a trip as possible, Steves said.

For people with a deeper interest in a place and its language, studying abroad may be the most attractive option, sometimes even the whole reason for a trip. Jan Capper, director of the International Association of Language Centers in Cambridge, England, which monitors and represents 90 schools in 21 countries, says the benefits of studying abroad may include faster language acquisition and exposure to a host country's culture.

The IALC Web site, www.ialc.org, links prospective students to the schools' own Internet sites, where the programs are described, prices are given and lodging options are outlined.

Those who want more individualized assistance finding a program can use language-study booking agencies, such as Barcelona, Spain-based www.languagecourse.net. The agencies keep their own lists of schools and handle applications, accommodations and payments.