The Essence of Language Learning: While Standing On One Foot Edition

The Jewish sage Hillel from Late Antiquity was once asked to explain the whole Torah while standing on one foot. He did so and said “that which is hateful to you, do not do onto your neighbor, the rest is commentary, now go and learn”.

The Jewish sage Jared Gimbel from a somewhat more confusing time was asked many times to explain the process of fluency in an elevator pitch. Although he did take the general idea from Khatzumoto, he did so and said “think about how many movies a 5-year-old has watched in their native language. The rest is commentary, now go and learn”.