Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners

@AnthoDerv
Thinking of my own studies (Japanese not English) have you considered magazines? On a subject that the learner knows or is interested in. The articles tend to be short and illustrated. The vocab personally relevant.
Children's news magazines are also good for current events. The language and structure although simpler is 'authentic'.
I believe the app Libby is used by some public libraries in Japan, who may carry English magazines like 'The Week Junior' for free.

Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners?
All my ideas are too last century with archaic language (A. A. Milne etc)

@AnthoDerv
or the lifestyle section of The Gaurdian? Tim Dowling's columns?
(Turn on adblock and turn off Javascript for a better experience though)

I couldn't think of any short form writers more recent than James Thurber. (that weren't genre)

@AnthoDerv Cannot recommend Readers' Digest highly enough. Interesting magazine articles targeting intermediate readers.

@AnthoDerv #EncyclopediaBrown? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Brown

@AnthoDerv OUP & CUP have graded readers that are pretty generic but level-specific. They're good for the people who understand what they're good for. Increasingly I'm realizing that most of my students can only understand English that has been translated directly from Japanese. They freak out with English as it occurs outside of a Japanese context, which means even language in graded readers seem weird for students.

@AnthoDerv was checking this out. It may be useful. Has Celeste Ng and others.

https://www.bookbub.com/blog/free-short-stories-online

@AnthoDerv Roald Dahl comes to mind, but might be a bit too dark sometimes and not short enogh?

@AnthoDerv it's been years since I've read, and I detest his work, but consider Hemingway? The language is very parsable, but I don't recall if the vocabulary is contemporary enough.

@AnthoDerv
Thinking of my own studies (Japanese not English) have you considered magazines? On a subject that the learner knows or is interested in. The articles tend to be short and illustrated. The vocab personally relevant.
Children's news magazines are also good for current events. The language and structure although simpler is 'authentic'.
I believe the app Libby is used by some public libraries in Japan, who may carry English magazines like 'The Week Junior' for free.

@AnthoDerv Not sure if these are the right level but, Patrick Sherriff has written some short story anthologies, they're meant for high school students but I've read them and I'd be fine reading the equivalent in Japanese as a learner https://freetalktefl.substack.com/p/the-hana-walker-mysteries

@AnthoDerv
I was looking through my bookshelves.
My wife used "Big Fat Cat" (Mukoyama Takahiko) readers for Japanese.
There's a short mildly amusing story with furigana, then a notes section explaining the grammar etc. in detail. almost sentence by sentence.
To me the English reads normally. not esp. adult though, but engaging enough. It feels intermediate. not beginner, not advanced.
Can't really comment on the grammar explanations but it looks ok.

@mylesserhalf I pulled The Old Man ad the Sea off the shelf but the language is too out of date for the level of M's student.

Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners?
All my ideas are too last century with archaic language (A. A. Milne etc)

@AnthoDerv E.B. White or S.E. Hinton. I don't have them to check the language, just a thought.

Any suggestions for very short English language stories or essays for adult early intermediate learners?
All my ideas are too last century with archaic language (A. A. Milne etc)