Stories, and why they are great for language learning

When you were growing up, whether it was in recent times, or ancient times, without doubt your parents read you a number of stories. Maybe you were told the stories of Dr. Seuss, or maybe stories of princes and princesses in far-off mythical lands. In any case, the stories were probably replete with simple words and phrases which form the basis of the language you learnt (be it English, Russian, Swahili, whatever). Furthermore, they contain a large number of phrases which you only hear in story-telling ("Once upon a time", "and they lived happily ever after", etc.), but which are necessary to understand a story.

From this basis, I put forth that learning children stories are a great way to expose yourself to language. You avoid the technical terms which might otherwise hold you up, and you learn the basic words which every child knows but might not be taught in a language class. Moreover, there are a number of references in popular culture to children stories, in every culture I know of.

The above holds true for Japanese. A couple of sites for your reference: a translated, annotated collection of Japanese children stories, some stories from traditional Ainu culture, narrated and translated into Japanese. The first site is great for the beginner: the stories are translated line for line, with annotations on all the Japanese phrases. The second site is a bit more advanced, since nothing is translated into English. However, it narrates a number of Ainu children stories with subtext. The stories are not too hard to follow, and it is certainly worth the listening practice, regardless of whether you catch every word.

So, get out there and learn your children stories! It will pay off in your comprehension of many things!