The present introduction consists of 16 units, all designed to be read independently. Each chapter introduces a specific area of linguistics: semantics, language history, language acquisition, mental lexicon, pragmatics, dialectology, phonetics, and so on. Questions such as "Can words make you tired?" (semantics), "Are there languages without grammar?" (syntax), "What kind of language is German, anyway?" (language history), or "Where are the words in the mind and how do we access them?" serve as starting points and chapter titles, illustrating the concept of this book: the most important linguistic themes and fundamentals should not only be presented in an easily accessible and understandable form, but also spark curiosity about the questions at hand. No prior knowledge is assumed. Since an introduction can naturally only provide a limited insight into a subject area, literature recommendations for further and more in-depth engagement with the topic are always provided at the end of each unit.