StoryLearning is a well-known language learning course developed by polyglot Olly Richards, and its approach is pretty self-explanatory: learn a language through story. The internet is chock full of five-star reviews, but is the heavy price tag worth it for you? In this StoryLearning review, that’s exactly what you’ll find out.
Keep reading this StoryLearning review to find out what these courses do, what they don’t do, and how to decide if you should give them a try.
Languages you can learn with StoryLearning
While not all languages are created equal (as in, some offer more content than others), you can use StoryLearning to learn:
- Arabic
- Chinese (Mandarin)
- Danish
- French
- German
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Latin
- Norwegian
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Swedish
- Turkish
Now let’s dive into the course itself.
StoryLearning review: course structure
As you log in to your StoryLearning course for the first time, you’ll have several pages introducing you to the course, including an introduction to your language teacher (Olly does not teach the languages himself, he just hosts a platform for others to teach using his methodology) and the basic gist of what makes StoryLearning special.
Here’s a clip.
You’ll also learn more details about how you will be learning a language through story. Specifically, each chapter corresponds with a chapter of a story created just for StoryLearning. They’re all broken up into the following lessons:
- Read and listen to the chapter of the story
- Learn the cognates (words that sound similar and mean the same in English [not to be confused with false friends, which sound similar but mean very different things]) present in the chapter
- Break down vocabulary words deemed important
- Learn the basic grammar used
- Simple pronunciation lesson
- Cultural tidbit
- A speaking lesson meant for you to share with a language teacher and/or language exchange partner
Then you’ll move on to the next chapter and do it all over again until you finish the story.
The idea is that if you’re consistent, you’ll understand more and more of the language until you finish the story and have successfully reached a certain level within said language.
All that said, let’s check out a StoryLearning lesson.
Chapter
The basis of every chapter of the StoryLearning courses is the chapters of the book. Here’s what that looks like.
As you can see, there’s even more explanation about how the course works before the first actual lesson.
- Listen to the audio recording a few times
- Read the foreign language translation a few times while listening to the audio recording
- Read the English translation to see how much you understood correctly
It goes on to explain (again) how to use the course; basically, be ready to repeat the same section over and over and over again, and understand little to none of it. It’s all part of the process, and it’ll work if you can stick to it.
Repetition, repetition, repetition – it’s like Pimsleur in this way, except you understand what’s going on in Pimsleur’s lessons. Here, you’re specifically meant to understand very little.
Cognates
Now that we have the sounds of the chapter in our brains, and maybe we’ve even made some connections between words ourselves, it’s time to acknowledge cognates.
This is a fairly common practice across some language learning resources, like Language Transfer. Anything to make it easier to connect to languages that are very different from your native language!
At this point, you should be starting to make sense of the language. It’s kind of like the first lesson is trying to get your brain to understand it by purely brute force, and then the following lessons give you a little step up solidifying the meaning behind these new sounds.
So now that we’re understanding a bit more of the general meaning behind the chapter, let’s learn some vocab.
Vocabulary
Even for such a short chapter, a total beginner of the language is not going to know any of the vocab presented. You might be curious as to which vocab words the teacher things are the most important to be explicitly taught. Most strategies go:
words > sentences > story
but this one seems to go:
story > words
Here’s what I mean.
Out of all the words I don’t understand in the chapter (which is all of them, for the record), these are the ones chosen to study specifically. It’s so weird to be learning “yes” and “no” after drilling the chapter of a story!
Then we have the practice. It’s a simple Quizlet plugin, where the words have been uploaded to the Quizlet platform and the link is copied and pasted into the course.
You’ll drill some chosen vocabulary by:
- matching (as shown in the video above)
- test (try to get the right answer)
- spelling
- flashcards
Can I be honest here?
This is lazy.
For such a well-known, expensive language course, I would expect more from the vocabulary section. I can’t even get it to work! Given that it is a Quizlet plugin, I would literally rather be given the vocab words in a list and put them into my own Quizlet account, or another flashcard system.
Using the StoryLearning approach, you’re not supposed to be memorizing lists of words, which is fine. If that’s the case, why include a vocab section at all?
Next is grammar, which is also not meant to be studied like a textbook, but instead picked up naturally.
Grammar
Olly is very clear that the StoryLearning approach is not your boring, basic textbook approach to a language, which is generally very focused on grammar. So, let’s see how they do it.
In this section, the specific concepts seem a lot less random.
While the strategy is the exact same one used in the previous lesson on vocabulary, the key difference here is that grammar is basically the patterns of the language. I like how the words can be pulled out of the chapter as examples of the beginner grammar pattern, which creates context and makes it much easier to learn.
It didn’t work this well for vocab, which felt like random words that were *chosen*.
However, the Quizlet activity is exactly the same. This is frustrating to me because I know there are much better options for practicing grammar! Again, I would rather be directed to high-quality grammar activities than this.
Next up: pronunciation.
Pronunciation
I’m curious about this section because most language learners don’t worry about pronunciation. Perfect pronunciation doesn’t tend to be a priority.
I approve!
Most language learners don’t realize that improving your pronunciation also improves your ability to understand a foreign language because you’re tuning your ear to understand the sounds that are used by native speakers.
StoryLearning is largely about input (understanding the language, not as much producing it yourself), and simple pronunciation lessons like this one are really helpful for listening comprehension.
The next lesson, culture, is another topic that isn’t always considered to be important.
Culture
Personally, I love culture. It tends to be one of my favorite parts of learning languages! Not always because of how it helps me to understand and use a language correctly, but just because I find it interesting.
Here’s how StoryLearning connects culture to language learning.
I’m going to be brutally honest again.
This StoryLearning review has proven this course to be dynamic, with videos, audio lessons, and activities to practice the concepts. So why is the lesson on culture…not?
Especially with the specific phrases used to explain the concept, they would be 10x more interesting and engaging with simple audio clips of the teacher saying the words and phrases. It would also really help with listening comprehension and being able to contextualize the lesson.
Time for the last section of each chapter.
Speaking
Speaking is not a big priority in the StoryLearning courses. The priority is reading, maybe listening to, stories meant for language learners. So I was surprised to find a speaking section in every chapter. Here’s what that looks like.
Once again…I’d rather they stick to what they’re good at.
This isn’t speaking practice as much as it is a free lesson to give to a language teacher or language exchange partner if you’re working with one. It is a good way to connect other language learning to what you’re learning with StoryLearning, but it’s not particularly effective by itself.
So once again, I would be more impressed if they stuck with what they’re good at – stories, reading, and listening comprehension – and leave all the other stuff to other resources that are much better at them.
I’d bet good money that at least 50% of all their students are just skipping right past the speaking section, finishing their StoryLearning courses, and then being frustrated that they can’t hold a conversation.
StoryLearning review: community
As you work through the StoryLearning courses, it’s suggested you join the private student community. Like, on every page. Each language has its own community. Here’s what it’s like inside.
As you can see, each language is broken up into the following categories:
- Say hello
- The level(s) you’ve purchased
- Live coaching
- Fun & motivational stuff
But, really, it just appears to be a timeline of unanswered tech issues.
One more time: stick to what you’re good at!
Judging by the rest of the StoryLearning course, the team is perfectly good at recording lessons and putting them where they belong, but not so much at keeping things updated and engaging in conversation.
That said, is the private student community a bonus to the StoryLearning courses? I’m honestly not sure.
StoryLearning review: price
For lifetime access to any one of the StoryLearning “Uncovered” courses, you’ll pay $297. This makes these courses one of the more expensive options on the market.
That’s really all there is to say about that. They’re commonly on special sales, or at least said to be on sale, but they’re pricey regardless.
Fortunately, you can get a 7-day free trial before you commit.
StoryLearning review: is it for you?
In this StoryLearning review, I’ve been more critical than most. A big reason for this is that those who are most excited about these courses are Olly’s personal friends, which makes their reviews far from objective.
So how do you know if StoryLearning is the right approach for you to learn a language?
First: reading has to be a priority. Listening too, but mostly reading. The point is to learn a language by reading stories, so if your goal isn’t to be able to read books in your target language, you’re better off using another method.
Second: either speaking the language isn’t important to you, or you’re getting your speaking practice elsewhere, whether that be with a language teacher or a language exchange. While there is technically a section for speaking practice, it does not suffice for those who really want to be conversational.
And third: you’re patient. While StoryLearning will teach you the language, you basically have to be willing and able to trust that it’s going to happen without being able to see a lot of the progress for yourself. Now this is normal for intermediate and advanced language learners, but true beginners are likely to give up before it really pays off.
In fact, you should probably meet all 3 conditions to benefit from any of Olly Richards’ resources, even his line of Short Stories books.
If you don’t, I would recommend another language learning resource that’s more geared toward teaching the skills that matter most to you, and that’s why I created my language app search.
But if you do, give StoryLearning a shot with a 7-day free trial here!
I have been reviewing this method from many reviews . The website does not really give a good sample, just a 7-day trial, which is extremely short compared to others (often14-30 days). I have one of his books for beginner Russian, and there is no translation or vocabulary that I could find in the book. I am left wondering the difference between this expensive program and reading a book and free videos on You Tube, often of high quality too! Have you seen the French professor, Guillame, very professional and free ? I am grateful for this review and I will not be taking the 7-day trial as it would expire before I could cancel.
I took the free trial (French uncovered) and cancelled within an hour. Here are the reasons I enrolled and why I cancelled.
I found the course trying to find intermediate level stories in French. I was hoping to revise before starting the B1 course at a school after a considerable gap. I found Ollie’s videos on youtube and got a bit excited that I would not only be reading stories but it would be completely integrated with the lessons and exercises. I took the test on their website and it put me in B1. I soaked up ‘the method’ against my better judgement thinking I needed to ‘go with it’. I was excited about the instructors being on the chat. I was seriously considering dropping regular classes and buying this app instead (this is slightly more expensive than face-to-face classes at Alliance Française in my country).
I was really really disappointed. Even though I am not going to be charged, I feel a little angry because I was made to feel as if I was challenging some ‘traditional’ way of learning or something. But at its core, the app is much closer to a rote learning type approach which it claims to stand against in its marketing.
1. An inordinate amount of time was spent trying to convince the student that there was somthing novel about this approach. I kept thinking… really? Is there anything new as a methodology here? But I kept shutting down myself thinking I was too stuck on old ways or something. But really… let me tell you, there isn’t anything novel about it.
Their claim is that you begin by reading and listening to a text rather than learning grammar. Well… that is how most adult language classes work. You listen to the teacher read a text. The textbook has comprehension exercises with which you try to see if you understand the meaning. The instructor explains any new vocabulary and grammar and you do the exercises that are related to the new concepts introduced!
Anyway, I thought, okay maybe the fact that it is one continuous story thoughtout the course will help me stay focused and motivated, so I persisted.
2. I enjoyed the story. The way it started, the tone, the voices. The level was right for me. I also enjoyed the ‘spoken’ french version.
3. The lesson was a travesty. In a 20 minute ‘vocabulary’ lesson (which was more a structure lesson) the instructor spoke only in English and translated every word and sentence structure back to English constantly. This was very stressful for me. It did not feel immersive. Virtually no foreign language institute does this anymore. They maintain that the language needs to be learnt in its own logic and arrangement without constantly translating between structures. Besides, the concept was simple enough to be explained in 2 minutes and then use the remaining 18 minutes to give examples. That would have been more useful than writing English translations (sometimes incorrectly) with a stylo. Really put me off. All the exercises were also mostly translation exercises which is similar to most free apps. I find translation useless. Especially translation of sentences while learning structure. Ollie’s video introduction on youtube led me to believe it was more than a translation based course and it would help me ‘think’ in the language I was learning.
4. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of a lesson in English, one is wondering why not just buy an audio book for less than 10 dollars and follow along for the story and do a B1 level grammar course on Udemy or something.
5. The discussion and quiz in ’standard textbooks’ (like Cosmopolite or Saison) are WAY better and much more integrated with the chapter at hand than this app and at 1/10 the price.
If you can afford this course, then please enrol in a ‘regular’ class near you or find yourself a ‘regular’ paid native teacher online. If you can’t and you were getting sucked into this pandamonium like me, find yourself a language exchange partner. If you want some structure and regular execises at your level GET A WRETCHED TEXT BOOK. It actually works. You can suggest your italki or language exchange partner to follow along with your textbook.
Bonne chance.
Thank you for sharing your experience! I wish I could say I was surprised, but I’m not. Especially here: “I was made to feel as if I was challenging some ‘traditional’ way of learning or something…An inordinate amount of time was spent trying to convince the student that there was somthing novel about this approach.”
My newsletter this week is about this concept exactly! There are no “new” strategies – anybody who claims this is just marketing to you. Always listen to your gut instinct, because it’s always right!
I want to thank you very much for your review! I believe you have saved me in the neighborhood of $300+!
I’ll stick to reading newspapers and using Deepl to translate.
Good to hear!
I’ve done Italian Intermediate and am currently doing Upper Intermediate. I really like them. I didn’t start my Italian journey with this and probably wouldn’t recommend starting off if you don’t already have a good base for the language. The lack of speaking is annoying but I also supplement it with Saga Baldoria from Gymglish, which I think is great. Planning on doing italki in the near future as well. But both my reading and listening comprehension have increased significantly since starting, especially with the upper intermediate. I find the story to be pretty fun for the most part and I really like the guy teaching Italian. The price is ridiculous. Had I not gotten a black Friday sale for both at $100 there’s no way I would pay for it.
I wholeheartedly agree with you!
Hi,
I am considering taking the CeOlt courses to teach English online. This is Olly Richard’s companion to story learning. Not having a degree in Education the two hundred fifty hour course seems plausible. But, I can’t find any objective reviews of CeOlt.
Does CeOlt really reinforce the story learning ?
Do the students of CeOlt teacher graduates derive a benefit ? CeOlt claims to teach people how to teach (grammar specifically). They also claim to teach how to judge the students level.
Would you review CeOlt, it’s graduates and students of those graduates, please ?
Would you recommend some resources to answer these questions ?
CeOlt asks four thousand dollars for two hundred fifty hours of course work toward certification. Without a college degree to enroll in Tefl are there competitor certifications outside CeOlt ?
I really appreciate your review of story learning and your objectivity. Keep up the good work.
I hadn’t even heard of this until your comment! My first thought is to be wary about which institutions accept it this certification. Reach out to places you’d like to work at BEFORE investing, because I’m doubtful. Even if it is accepted, $4,000??? You’re probably better off just getting started and learning as you go.
My experiences, Italian Uncovered (Beginner): not very interesting story but I was very much into learning basics. Based on my prior learning experiences (English, Swedish, German + Latin introduction) I could quite easily “guess” the story and confirm it after every chapter by reading transcriptions. So I understood the message (story) but did not understood the structure of Italian language (and still don’t) so it is almost impossible to me to produce anything spoken or written. After that I found Busuu, made their language level test and found out that I am still very much in A1/beginner.
Summary: an expensive course, low results.
I signed up to the French Intermediate course. I have found the videos on grammar and vocab helpful and it is good that you will always have access to them, but the Quizlet stuff just seems a bit amateur ( for the money paid). To be honest for culture just listen to a podcast or watch a YouTube video, it adds no value to the course and for the talking have weekly Italki sessions they will be far more beneficial.
Overall the course has been beneficial for me and how I like to learn.
However, I will say, I am pleased I signed up as part of Black Friday as in my opinion the course is never worth the original amount and I would never pay that amount for it.
I agree. It’s not a bad strategy or a bad product, but the price tag is a little insane.
This is actually useful, there’s a lot of review sites that just work as a sales platform, I’m not sure how this one makes money but it’s probably the most useful review I’ve found on any one language site.
Also while reading might not be as important in a language like Spanish coming from English it’s much more important in a language like Japanese or Chinese where learning the new characters is roughly 2/3ds of the difficulty.
Might not help pass the JLPT so much but it’s useful overall, might give it a try after I fail the JLPT N4 next month.
I appreciate this take so much! That’s exactly why I started reviewing language apps in the first place.
The internet is filled with biased storylearning reviews all done by his friends who earn a commission promoting him. When all it is is the same repackaged format that other programs offer for cheaper. I’ve decided to avoid this program
Yeah I’ve unfortunately noticed the same about who promotes the course the most. But I will say the course content is original and can be beneficial to some language learners, it’s just a matter of understanding who it’s really for (and it’s definitely not for everyone)
Thanks for another great review. You’ve nailed it pretty well. One thing you didn’t point out (missed?) was the lack of emphasis in writing the target language. I’ve only recently learned how important this leg of the learning stool is. I’ve read about how reading, listening, speaking, writing, are very important in LL but never appreciated how each element should be learned/worked on in approximately equal measures to obtain a somewhat useful level of the target language. It has been an eye opener as I started a new language using very different approach.
Very true! The only reason I didn’t point it out is because the vast majority of language learners want to focus on speaking, and StoryLearning focuses on reading. I wanted to be very clear about what you can expect, as per usual. You don’t need to develop every skill if that’s not relevant to your goals, but it’s definitely important to be intentional about it!