History & Language was primarily a history class, but it was also the only class during which the professor, an elderly wizard who appeared to be a polyglot, would speak in any language other than German. Thrice a week was Talking Day, during which all the students in a class were supposed to try to speak to each other using only whatever language was assigned that day; this was mostly to encourage the students to be able to communicate with one another. There were students whose mother tongues were German, French, Italian, and almost every Slavic and Scandinavian language there was, and although all the students had at least basic proficiency in German, it helped everyone to know how the others worked.