Interestedness plays a decisive role in language learning The root of interestedness is the Latin inter esse: to be inside, to be between.

This last term is often shortened to interest, which can be misleading because interest and interestedness can mean different things

The light beam of interestedness illuminates a wider slice of the world than interest. That is why I ventured to areas beyond just language learning. The light beam of my interestedness will randomly shine into this and that province.

Only communication that addresses us and concerns us can open a gap in the wall of the “foreign” language to be acquired.

Today’s courses generally cannot achieve this, despite much more developed methods of education. Not only is less time given to an individual, but also this one-to-one relation—this inter esse or being in between—is missing.

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Context is your dictionary

Context is the only reliable dictionary. At the beginning of my language-learning career I realized that dictionaries can really only help you if you already have a sense of the word in question and how it is used. After all, a word is not a whole but a fraction.

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I have said many times on radio and television that books— which can be consulted at any time, questioned again and again, and read into scraps—cannot be rivaled as a language-learning tool.

After this confession of lyrical beauty, let me say that although more efficient means of learning exist, more accessible and oblig- ing ones do not. In order to have an hour’s dialogue with a book, the most you need to do is amble to the nearest library. If it were as easy to get hold of an intelligent, cordial, and patient partner, I would recommend that instead.

I frequently emphasize the importance of books. I might overemphasize it. But books were how my generation became ac- quainted with the realities of life, and books were our refuge if those realities proved too stern.

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It cannot be denied that sounds are more attractive to the young than the printed word. We booklovers are sorry for this reduction in the magic power of print. However, the shift of per- ception from the eyes toward the ears may be advantageous in one respect: The dominance of sound may bring back auditory memory that we lost on account of reading

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