If communication is measurable in terms of number of words, we are the greatest communicators in the history of our species. There's the rub, says President magazine. Listening is the hard part. It's harder than talking -- in part, writes Toshiyuki Goda of the NHK Broadcast Research Center in his contribution to President's feature on "listening ability," because, as speakers, we can keep the dialogue within our comfort zone, while listening may take us outside it -- into the realm of our own ignorance, which is uncomfortable enough; or, worse, into that of the awkward silence. The on-air broadcaster is particularly sensitive to the latter, but it bedevils all social intercourse.