Operation Language stories
Click here for free stories in your target language
This page is dedicated to creating a library of free stories anyone can use to learn languages. My vision is to facilitate a community of language lovers who can work together to create graded readers (beginner and intermediate level texts), audio stories, and videos in many languages.
Research shows that one of the best ways to acquire a foreign language naturally is to spend lots of time reading and listening to materials in that language, but they must be materials that are appropriate for your current level. The problem is that it is often hard to find lots of content that is easy enough to understand, but challenging enough to keep you learning. If you want to help solve this problem for language learners around the world, scroll down to see how you can help.
You can see all the current stories and translations by clicking here: Language Stories Library
If you want to discuss this project, and how you can participate, be sure to join our Discord Server
All content listed on this page will be free and in the public domain forever. If you are interested in joining the movement to help create free content for language learners, check out the information below.
Examples
The Water Bottle
This is a simple dialogue between two characters. Here are three versions of it. So far, this story has been translated into 7 languages, and it can exist in more languages with your help!
After It Came
This is a post-apocalyptic thriller designed for intermediate learners. The story takes the format of a play because this makes it extra easy for beginners to understand which character is speaking, and what is happening in the plot. So far, this story only exists in English, French, Spanish, and Filipino but with your help, it can exist in many more languages!
I am going to write this story as a series of chapters, and will hopefully release a new chapter every week. You can see part 2 of the story here.
(For this story, I recorded an audiobook of myself reading the script. So far, we only have an audiobook for the English version of the story. If you can narrate the story in any of the other languages, please send me an mp3 of your recording. You can submit the Mp3 Here. )
How you can help
This project will require the collaboration of a lot of different types of people. No matter what your skills are, you can help in one of the following ways.
Writers
Write short stories designed for beginner or intermediate language learners (in any language).
Be sure to use beginner or intermediate level vocabulary
It is best to format beginner stories as a play, as this simplifies things and always makes it clear which character is talking.
Create a Google Doc with your short story, and leave a link Here.
Translators
If you want to submit a translation of a story that already exists in our collection:
First check the English folder to see if there are any stories you want to translate into your native language (or another folder if your native language is English).
Then check the folder of your native language to make sure that story has not been translated yet.
Type up your translation in a Google Doc. Please format the translation like the original story.
Click Here to submit your translation.
I will accept translations in any language. This can be a huge help to those who are learning languages with few learning resources available.
Please only submit translations if you are a native speaker, or an advanced second language speaker of the language you are translating into.
Proofreaders
With an open source platform like this, mistakes will inevitably pop up. If you can submit a correction to any of our content, please do so!
Each story will be stored on a Google Doc with commenting enabled.
To make corrections to a story, you can just leave a note in a comment on the Google Doc itself.
Narrators, illustrators, and videographers
We won't just stop at written stories! I encourage you to create audio recordings, comic books, and videos of our stories.
If you create an audiobook, or a video of one of our stories, please leave a link to your creation in the submission form below, and I will list the link to your content in the library.
If you want to turn one of our stories into a comic book, just send me a link to the PDF, or a Google Doc with the images included.
To send links to any file you want to submit, Click Here
Other links
Videos on how to learn languages, and an introduction to Linguistics (the scientific study of language)
