The Center's equipment also includes two sound scribers and three record players. Some students report as regularly as five times a week to use the linguaphone facilities. "American ears are just not turned to foreign languages," claims Mrs. Leggewie, and hearing these records seems to help them tremendously.

The winding staircase that leades to the third floor is marked "private:" up there are bedrooms and the offices of three professors.

Chief Service as Club Center

The number of books, periodicals, and pamphlets belonging to the Center or housed there on permanent loan is well over 3,500. These holdings, plus the 700-odd records kept in the Center's recording-studio, in over 90 per cent of the cases represent gifts to the Center from friends of its program: professors, student organizations, publishing houses in this country and abroad, university presses, national and international institutions whose programs stress the furtherance of intellectual cooperation, alumni, and other persons who, having visited the Center, and became interested in its work, seek through donations to increase its facilities. Berrien estimates that 8,000 to 10,000 people, not different ones of course, passed through the Center last year. The Center boasts one of the finest foreign grammar text libraries in the country and teachers from nearby high schools and colleges frequently visit the Center to select the book they plan to use in their courses.

But the Modern Language Center's main function today is as a meeting place for the eight clubs whose members get together there once every two weeks and as a place for receiving eminent guests or presenting public readings and discussion of selected works in various European literatures. The clubs include LeCercle Francais de Harvard, Verein Turmwaechter, Clube Hispanico, Linguistic, Luso-Brazilian, Slavic, Circolo Italiano, and Comparative Literature.

The Center is well-equipped to handle group meetings, illustrated lectures, record recitals, and informal gatherings of plays and poetry, as well as round table discussions of problems related to the interpretation of the various cultures represented by the Center's stock of books, slides, records, reproductions, and realia. Both informal parties and special lectures are presented by the clubs, whose membership numbers anywhere form 15 to 60. Refreshments--beer for the German Club, wine or sherry for most of the others--follow their meetings. The Harvard Council of Foreign Language Clubs, including a representative from each group, makes suggestions as to what types of meetings should be held. This program of lectures and receptions for professors visiting Cambridge is supplemented by periodic art and book exhibits and the presentation of short plays in various languages.

Concentrators in the Romance Languages naturally form a large percentage of the membership of these clubs, but membership is by no means limited to undergraduates. One of the Widener doormen happened to have lived in Brazil for a while and now he and his wife regularly attend meetings of the Brazilian Club. Foreign students make up a small percentage of the clubs. They stimulate conversation when the tendency is to lapse back into English but they presumably come to this country to learn about cultures other than their own. For this reason, the Center makes no effort to keep them isolated.

It is perhaps significant that, during the first week after fall registration, the Center is booked up for every night--Monday through Thursday--for the entire year. The Center's daytime hours are 10 a.m. to noon and 1 to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Speakers vs. Members Participation

Berrien has noted what he calls a "vicious circle" in the club meetings themselves: outside speakers do not stimulate student participation; on the other hand, some people will not attend a meeting unless they can listen to a speaker. Berrien feels this often becomes a fourth classroom lecture, which is exactly what he tries to avoid. He supposes that some students are "organically spectators," but he is still anxious to strike a successful balance between speakers and student discussion groups, and he would like to introduce more round tables and debates.

There seem to be two kinds of people who visit the Modern Language Center--the student who is interested in informal activities relating to the study and appreciation of a certain language and culture; and the scholar who comes to hear another scholar give a learned dissertation on, say, some lost Diderot manuscripts that he has recently recovered. The Center is ready to accommodate both types.

The key to the Modern Language Center is its informal atmosphere, and this is what Professor Berrien has been striving to maintain since 1946. His colleagues have often questioned him about turning some of the rooms into classrooms (as it is now, no classes are held at the Center; groups are brought over from time to time to use the facilities) but this would destroy the informality. By the same taken, any "expansion" of the present setup would defeat the purpose of the Center.

Does Professor Berrien have any long range plans for his project? Naturally he is limited to some extent by the lack of funds; but the Modern Language Center was conceived as a student activities center for one small segment of the University. The clubs that hold their meetings there now formerly met in the Houses, which meant a constant moving around. Berrien calls Phillips Brooks House "too somber." The Center is bound to remain just that so long as Berrian, an interesting and interested man, is in charge. He wants nothing big. His crying need at the moment is merely for a piano