The editorial in the current number of the Advocate calling attention to the need of conversational German courses is timely. It is strange that there should be any necessity for such an editorial. The need ought to have been recognized long ago by the German department and provided for. It is hard to understand how the German department of a great university can assume to teach the language without such courses. It is conversational courses which give practical value to instruction in the modern languages. The only way for the student to get into the real spirit of a modern language is by coming into actual contact with the living language itself. When he can make a language the means of oral communication of his own thought he begins to get at its real vitality. The German department is much behind the French department in this matter of practical courses. There is a demand for German courses which will correspond to French 3, 4 and 5 in a general way. Such courses would be popular with the students whom every department should especially consider, the men who are really in earnest in their work. It is to be hoped that the German department will be able to offer some such courses next year. If given they should be given by the best men in the department. Conversational courses are perhaps the hardest kind to give, but given rightly they are invaluable to all serious students.