StoryLearning A Course · Est. 2014
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From the author of 30+ language-learning books

A StoryLearning Course

The Course Behind The Books.

The course Olly wrote after the books.
A way to learn a language that finally sticks —
built from twenty years of teaching.

By OLLY RICHARDS A StoryLearning Course · Self-Paced · Lifetime Access
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Chapter I

Finally, A Method That Sticks.

"You've tried the apps. You've memorised the vocab. Maybe even taken classes. But nothing stuck. And you're starting to wonder if you're just not a language person."

— A reader's note · Page 9

You are not the problem.

The problem is that almost everything you've been handed — the app with the green owl, the flashcard deck, the classroom drill, the polite Spanish phrasebook — was built around the same small, tired idea: repeat after me. I call it the Parrot Method. It feels like progress for three weeks. Then it stops working, and you start wondering whether it's you.

It isn't.

Reading a story uses a different part of your brain — the part that remembers because it cared what happened. That's the part the course works on. Not drills. Not streaks. A real short story in your new language, with everything you need to understand it from day one.

Open it for seven days. Watch a lesson. Read a page. If it doesn't feel different from everything you've tried — close the tab. No card. No fight. We'd rather you walked away than wasted another year.

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4.8 / 5 · over 600,000 adults reading, listening & speaking with the StoryLearning method in 12+ languages.

— Olly London, 2026

Chapter II

How a Beginner Reads a Story.

"The most common question, answered with a page from inside the course."

Every adult I've ever taught begins with the same fear: but I can't read a story in a language I don't speak yet. Yes, you can. The course is designed so a complete beginner reads a real story from week one. Here's how the scaffolding works — and a page from inside, so you can see it.

  1. You see and hear it together.

    A native speaker reads the story aloud while the text sits in front of you. You aren't deciphering letters alone — sound and shape arrive at the same time, and the language stops being a code.

  2. You already know thousands of words.

    Spanish — and French, Italian, Portuguese — is full of words your brain already understands. They're called cognates, and they do most of the heavy lifting. The page below shows what that looks like in a single sentence.

  3. Olly walks you through the sentences.

    No grammar tables. No abstract rules. In the video lessons, Olly takes the sentences from the story itself and breaks them down with you — grammar emerges from context, the way it does in real life.

  4. A native expert teaches your mouth what to do.

    A separate pronunciation module — taught by a native accent expert — covers mouth shape, rhythm, intonation, melody. So you don't just understand the words. You can say them, and be understood.

  5. You get the cultural context.

    Where the story is set. Who the characters are. Why a Spanish coffee is served the way it is. The world the language lives inside — because words only stick when they belong somewhere.

  6. Then you re-listen — and it lands.

    The same sentences that felt opaque on pass one are obvious on pass two. That's the moment we're after — the small, quiet, real moment when a beginner thinks: wait, I can actually do this.

A page from the course · Spanish · Lesson 1

La científica1 visita el laboratorio2 para investigar3 el misterio4 .

The scientist visits the laboratory to investigate the mystery.

And you hear it. Read by a native speaker. At your pace.

That sentence is 80% English already. You're not starting from zero.

  1. científica scientist
  2. laboratorio laboratory
  3. investigar investigate
  4. misterio mystery

You don't understand everything.
But you understand more than you expected.

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Chapter III

What's Inside The Course.

"A complete short-story course for adult beginners — built around one real story you'll actually finish."

  1. A real short story

    Written for the course in your target language — mystery, plot, characters worth caring about. Not a phrase list dressed up as a chapter.

  2. 60+ video lessons with Olly

    Olly takes you through the story sentence by sentence — vocabulary, grammar, idiom — all from inside the story itself. No grammar tables.

  3. Native-speaker audio of the whole story

    Recorded slow enough for an adult ear, paced for a beginner. Read it. Listen. Re-listen. Read again. Watch it become obvious.

  4. Pronunciation training

    A separate module taught by a native accent expert — mouth shape, rhythm, intonation. So you don't just understand the words. You can say them.

  5. Sentence-by-sentence grammar breakdowns

    Walked through with you, with the story open. Grammar earns its keep by explaining a sentence you actually want to understand.

  6. Cultural context for the language's world

    Where the story is set, what the characters drink, what the festivals mean, why a Spanish dinner is at ten. The world the words live in.

  7. Exercises that aren't quizzes

    Re-reading prompts. Writing prompts. Listen-and-respond drills. Designed to embed the language, not catch you out.

  8. A community of students like you

    Mostly adults. Mostly over fifty. Mostly people who've tried everything else. You won't be the only beginner. You won't be the only seventy-something.

  9. Lifetime access. One-time fee.

    Not a subscription. Not a drip. You pay once and the course is yours — for the rest of your life, on any device, at your pace.

Chapter IV

Pick Your Language.

"One method. Twelve-and-more languages. Pull the one you've been meaning to learn for years off the shelf."

The course library — click a spine to start your free trial

SL · Course Spanish Uncovered SL · Course French Uncovered SL · Course Italian Uncovered SL · Course German Uncovered SL · Course Portuguese Uncovered SL · Course Japanese Uncovered SL · Course Korean Uncovered SL · Course Russian Uncovered SL · Course Mandarin Uncovered SL · Course Cantonese Uncovered SL · Course Arabic Uncovered SL · Course Turkish Uncovered SL · Course Danish Uncovered

Don't see your language? More courses on the press. Start your free trial and you'll be the first to hear.

Chapter V

Voices From The Students.

"Students of the course, lightly edited. Real names. Real ages. Real towns."

  1. Finally — a method that respects the reader.

    — Mary 72 Almería, Spain

  2. I tried for 18 years. This worked in 12 weeks.

    — Anthony 68 San Miguel, Mexico

  3. I'm 76. I am a slow learner. Olly is the first teacher who hasn't made me feel like one.

    — Joan 76 Costa Rica

  4. Day 620 of Duolingo and I'd learned nothing. One month of this and I had my first real conversation.

    — Robert 65 Buenos Aires

  5. I read a story. I cried at the end. And the words stayed.

    — Inés 70 Tarifa, Spain

Five of several thousand letters from students of the course.

Chapter VI

About The Author.

"The man behind the books — and the course."

Olly Richards, founder of StoryLearning, photographed against a warm tan textured wall.
Olly Richards. Photograph by Owen Harvey, London 2023.

From the inside back flap.

On the day I stopped breathing, I got up at 3am to see the mountains from the balcony of my hotel room.

From Olly's notebook · Argentina, 2004

Olly Richards was twenty-three, halfway up a mountain in Argentina, two thousand seven hundred and eighty metres into thin air his lungs had opinions about. He couldn't sleep. He thought he was dying. So he picked up the only Spanish novel in the room — Gabriel García Márquez — and read until dawn.

He didn't understand all of it. But he understood enough. By the time he came down off the mountain, alive and wheezing, he was reading Spanish. A week later, in a Buenos Aires bar, he kept up with his friends for the first time. The words had stayed because the story had.

He'd stumbled into a method. He has spent twenty years refining it, across more than twelve languages. He has written more than thirty books — translated into more languages than most novels.

This course is what came after the books. The thing he wished he'd had on that balcony — every scaffold a beginner needs to read a real story in a language they don't yet speak, from day one. Built from twenty years of teaching adults who had tried everything else.

He lives in London.

Languages spoken 8 fluent · 4 conversational
Books in print Thirty-something
Founded StoryLearning 2014

Chapter VII

How To Begin.

"Open the course for seven days. Walk a chapter. See if it lands."

The reader's preview

Seven days inside the course.
On the house.

A real short story in your language, with native audio, video lessons from Olly, pronunciation training and the full course community — open for seven days. If it doesn't feel different from everything you've tried, walk away. No card asked for at the door. Cancel anytime.

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