It might be helpful to provide more info about this requirement: do you need a certain number of credits in foreign language, do you need to pass a test, are you looking for functional fluency that would allow you to undertake fieldwork somewhere...? What are your time and financial constraints?
Without knowing this, here are some thoughts:
- Are there any intensive summer language programs or other short-term immersion-type programs in your area? These can often jump-start your ability to use a foreign language in a few weeks or a couple of months, but the time commitments are usually pretty intense for that short period.
- Community colleges provide programs (either academic-year or summer) that are often orders of magnitude cheaper than at universities ($150 might cover the whole course at a community college).
- Could you hire a tutor to teach you the basics? This might fit into your schedule, but the cost might be prohibitive. Consider advertising locally for an undergraduate's help, or offer English proofreading services to a native Spanish-speaking graduate student in exchange for assistance learning Spanish.
- There are various language courses on tape, CD, video, or internet. Cost varies. Check your local bookstore. If you're very self-motivated, you might look into these. Also depends on how your school's requirement is set up - these don't usually grant credit, except as part of...
- Online courses. Have you looked into these, at your school or elsewhere? There's a wide range of costs, depending on who offers these, whether or not they grant credit, etc.
One example: MIT has some free non-credit Spanish courses online, and you might be able to access the streaming educational videos; see:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Foreign-Languages-and-Literatures/index.htm
Scroll down for Spanish 1 classes.
Another example: If you're willing to shell out $705, there's a 5-unit credit-granting Internet class offered by UC Berkeley Extension; see
http://explore.berkeley.edu/UCExt/courseview.asp?secid=472&value=0.8.&action=Internet
If not (I'm assuming not...) you can at least check out the materials they use to see if those might help you study on your own.
Undoubtedly many other similar programs out there.
Good luck!
