At the same time, the new interest in language often overlooks the fact that students may desire to learn a Slavic language for widely differing purposes. In this respect he does not differ from the average English speaking person who may fully master the language and still be almost completely ignorant of the technical terms (jargon) of some particular profession or activity. Disregarding the notion that a foreign language should be learned only to read _belles-lettres_, we far too often replace it with the ability to carry on ordinary conversations on general subjects. There is of course, in all languages, an irreducible minimum of words of universal applicability, but methods must be found to include special vocabularies for students with special interests. This has been met in part by the production of technical dictionaries for the several sciences but much work remains to be done. These remarks apply to all the languages of East Europe. However, modern methods have received their fullest application in teaching Russian, although auspicious beginnings have been made for others, especially Polish. It is highly desirable that textbooks and other aids be increased in the near future to provide all Slavic languages with adequate materials, adapted to the use of English-speaking students. Russian is still the language in which most American students are interested. In a way this is natural because Russian, both by its political importance, the number of persons speaking it and the reputation of some Russian writers, is undoubtedly the most important. Other Slavic and East European tongues are adequately taught only in some of the larger universities or in smaller institutions with special interests, be it circumstances of the administration or the character of the student body. Yet it is hardly true that any person interested in the broader studies of Eastern Europe can be adequately equipped if he possesses only a knowledge of Russian, though this does not make the situation as hopeless as it might seem. There are so many common roots and forms of expression in all Slavic languages that it is possible to prepare a course which will emphasize the salient features of each language, equip the student with a knowledge of any one Slavic language, and still enable him to handle, for scientific purposes, the others without too much difficulty. This was successfully done by Professor Prince at Columbia when, with a fine disregard for special grammatical features of the different languages, he arranged a general reading course in the Slavic tongues. For some years, Professor Manning followed his example. The course was finally dropped because of other departmental needs but there is no reason why such a course could not be standardized and made available in many institutions which are unable to afford a complete university staff to teach the different languages individually.