PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES.

Columbia has introduced a course in Japanese in its curriculum. Russian will soon be taught in Seattle, "the American gateway to Russia." Portuguese is the last to break into the circle of college-taught languages. The significance of this sudden influx of new tongues is that foreign languages are no longer considered cultural studies, but are taking their places among the practical arts.

Naturally the influence of commercial expansion can never sound the death-knell of literature. Homer, Cicero, Moliere and Goethe will always be read and appreciated, although the entire world cries for development in trade.

To meet the demand of men who intend to enter business houses in foreign countries, conversation courses have been instituted at Harvard in German, Spanish and French. But these very courses are allowed to be over-run with formal grammar and written translations. The conspicuous characteristic of such courses is the students' silence. Usually the conversation in the particular foreign language is limited to the professor's monologue. The mistake lies in the impossible attempt to weld both practical and cultural aims. Since poetry is not taught in conjunction with plumbing, why should art be combined with the language of foreign business? Under present methods the student learns neither.

Students in Germany can speak intelligible English. If we should teach foreign languages in the same way, with practical methods towards a practical end, we should accomplish the same results.