The Incredible Power of Short Stories: Why They’re Best for Language Learning

Everyone has always been telling us that we need to learn foreign languages. That it will widen our borders, that will expand the number of people we are able to communicate with, and will influence each area of our lives. It is partially true. This could make life, work, and traveling so much easier. Although, we all thus pressure and lack of understanding why you specifically would need to study a foreign language could be overwhelming. Where do you see your future, which of the languages would actually be useful for you, and all the time and effort put into studying it would not be a waste?

Approach to language learning

The first and the hard part so start your way to language learning, is to determine your goal. You would need to understand what you are doing this for. Is there anything specific you would like to do once you know the language? Would you use it for business or leisure? Seeking friends or romantic relationships. Once you understand, it will be easier to understand which vocabulary and course, maybe even free, would be helpful.

Another significant part would be understanding which of all the languages would specifically be useful for you. You could choose it based on popularity and go with Spanish or Chinese. Or maybe you would want to write essay samples in German for your studying and this is the language you would go for. There is no limit to the languages and your dreams and ambitions.

Last but not least would be choosing an approach to how you would learn it specifically. Would that be private lessons or group courses? Another way would be learning from books and videos, but it takes so much more time. It might not be as fun; however, whatever works best for you. There is no bad way to learn a language as long as you do that. Foreign languages are incredible in many ways like training your memory, your ways to present and speak and also listen.

Five reasons how writing short stories can help you with language learning

Enrich your vocabulary

There is no better way to learn new words and phrases than writing your own stories and articles. However, you should study examples of short stories to excel at writing your own. Classic stories, or at least a summary, are good for this. Start with What of This Goldfish Would You Wish summary and try to write your own stories. As you are constantly looking for the best synonyms and other ways you express your thoughts, you will start memorizing them and end up using them on a daily basis. Writing essays, assignments, and research papers for school is also used in education methods with this purpose and shows incredible results.

Reading the sources

Sometimes, to make a great story, you need to go through some other free literature like books and samples to grow an opinion on the topic. English as any other language has developed itself and has changed through times and continents. Reading the original sources will be a great example. Apparently, these might not be the kind of new words you would implement in your real life, however, it is always nice to have a few words to replace a casual “good”, “bad”, and “nice”.

Getting opinions

This one might be pretty hard to take, but it always works like a charm. We are learning in life and while at school or college, we get and have to accept opinions on our works and titles. Believe it or not, getting your articles graded is an amazing way to see the areas of improvement. To accept it to the fullest, naturally, you would need to have this bond with the teacher or professor to actually believe that they are wishing you the best and have this mutual trust. No matter how hard it can sometimes be, constructive criticism will be as valuable as any of the points mentioned above, and as students, we learn to accept it.

Tools to help you with writing

We live in the twenty-first century and technologies have made our lives so much easier over time. Of course, there are so many different ways you could use them. Nonetheless, we need to learn how to use those technologies for our own benefit. These tools like Grammarly, for instance, are helping you to have your grammar and spelling in the correct way in your paper on various topics. In addition, it has a feature of also showing you the alternatives of how to say separate phrases and sentences for it to make more sense. It would be a great opportunity for you to learn and compare what you have said and how it could be done better. There is no need to change everything based on its comments and you can keep your essay authentic. But you can always view them and take them into consideration to grow.

Keeping it simple

The amazing advantage of short stories is their simplicity. There is so much we could say in the long articles with many long and complicated words and confusing sentences. But the greatness of writing short stories would be trying to make them understandable for anyone who reads it. Ordinary words and situations written about that anything could relate could sound so easy, but, on the other hand, is extremely hard. Sometimes, keeping it to the point is the hardest task you could take.

In conclusion

I will highlight how significant knowledge of at least one foreign language is. If we look at the job market, to begin with, there are plenty of job offers for people with the knowledge of at least one additional language to English. Of course, the entire world speaks English, especially business. But some countries and areas refuse to learn the common world languages and are willing to do business in their native ones and there are so many examples. Apart from business, it would make so much more sense to travel and be able to at least greet others in their language. After all, language learning is an exciting path that will bring you lots of joy and value. It will expand your limits and open borders you have never seen before. So it will be worth it.