T HE Courses in foreign language were constructed to remedy the defects of other recorded courses. While all the more important 'features of the are to be found in one or another of previously recorded works, there is no one other course which has all of its advantages. The Courses have all been prepared by experienced teachers, and they are recorded by well-educated natives who are aware of the difference between good and affected speech. The course in Brazilian Portuguese, for instance, is recited by Snra. Marialice Pessoa and her husband, both graduates of Brazilian universities and instructors in Portuguese in this country. The course was devised by Dr. Edwin B. Williams of the University of Pennsylvania, one of the leading scholars of the Portuguese language. Dean Williams is the originator of the Conversaphone and general editor of the series. Dr. George Seiver, head of the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania, made the French course. The Italian was done by Dr. Vittorini and the Russian by Dr. Senn, both at the University of Pennsylvania and both authorities in their fields. The Japanese and the Spanish courses were done by your speaker. The courses, with the exception of the Russian, consist of no more than ten records, that is, twenty lessons, one lesson to each record side. We find that the basic principles of the language and the essential conversation can be covered without increasing the number of records. The lessons are topical and the material is not academic, but gives the usual conversations heard in shopping, asking directions, taking a bus and trolley, ordering a meal in a restaurant, getting a haircut, visiting a doctor, making a telephone call, etc. The grammar is graded and every time a new point is introduced a superimposed number appears in the record text. This number refers to the paragraph where that topic is discussed in the Grammar section. When a further development of that point is introduced, the same number is given in