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As the crow flies - à vol d'oiseau (within a bird's flight)

At the crack of dawn - à l'heure du coq (at rooster hour)

Bed - plumard, m (feather bag, slang)

Being bird-brained - avoir une cervelle de moineau (having a sparrow's brain)

Being bitterly cold - faire un froid de canard (doing a duck's cold)

Being in a bad state - avoir du plomb dans l'aile (having lead in the wing)

Being like a pig in clover - être comme un coq en pâte (being happy like a rooster carried in a basket)

Being on one's last legs - battre de l'aile (flapping one's wing)

Being taken for a fool - être pris-e pour un-e pigeon-ne

Being the butt of the joke - être le dindon de la farce (being the prank's turkey cock)

Big, proud man - coq, m (rooster)

Birdie song - danse des canards, f

Bird of ill omen - oiseau de mauvais augure/de malheur, m

Burying your head in the sand - faire l'autruche (doing the ostrich)

Changing subjects abruptly - passer du coq à l'âne (going from the rooster to the donkey)

Chatterbox - pie, f (magpie)

Cleft lip - bec de lièvre, m (hare beak)

Cockfight - combat de coqs, m

Cop - poulet, m (chicken)

Crow's feet - pattes d'oie, f (goose paws)

Curved paring knife - bec d'oiseau, m (bird beak)

Daydreaming - bayer aux corneilles (gawk at little crows, neg)

Dip pen - porte-plume, m (feather holder)

Dipstick - triple buse, f (three time buzzard)

Dispenser nozzle - bec verseur, m (pouring beak)

Duck face - bouche en cul de poule, f (hen-butt mouth)

Ducky - ma poule (my hen, slang/old)

Eating like a bird - avoir un appétit d'oiseau

Eggnog - lait de poule, m (hen milk)

Featherweight - poids plume, m

Feeling light - avoir des ailes (having wings)

Finding a rare bird - trouver l'oiseau rare

Fired up - remonté-e comme un coucou (winded up like a cuckoo clock)

Flying too close to the sun/getting burnt - se brûler les ailes (burning one's wings)

Foie gras, m (fat liver)

Fountain pen - stylo-plume, m (feather pen)

Genius - aigle, m (eagle, slang)

Getting fooled - se faire pigeonner (getting pigeoned)

Goosebumps - chair de poule, f (chicken flesh)

Goose that lays golden eggs - la poule aux oeufs d'or, f (the golden egg's hen)

Greenhorn - blanc bec, m (white beak)

Green-yellow - caca d'oie, m (goose poo green)

Grouch - vieux hibou, m (old owl)

Happy as a lark - gai comme un pinson (gay as a chaffinch)

Having a go at/laying into - voler dans les plumes de (flying in someone's feathers)

Having a quarrel - se prendre le bec (beak fighting)

Having a sweet tooth - être un bec sucré (being a sweet beak)

Having bad breath - puer du bec (having a stinky beak, slang)

High and dry - le bec dans l'eau (the beak in the water)

High class hooker - poule de luxe, f

Houndstooth - pied-de-poule (hen foot)

Hurriedly - à tire d'aile (with pulled wings)

Insult - nom d'oiseau, m (bird name)

It's nothing to write home about - ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard (it doesn't break three legs to a duck)

Joker, random guy - oiseau, m (bird)

Lame duck - canard boiteux, m (limping duck)

Light as a feather - léger-e comme une plume

Lovebirds - tourtereaux, m (baby turtledoves)

Mixing bowl - cul de poule, m (hen butt)

Newspapers - canard, m (duck, slang)

Night owl - oiseau de nuit, m

Not coming out unscathed - y laisser des plumes (leaving feathers behind)

Old cow - vieille chouette, f (old owl)

One swallow doesn't make a summer - l'hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps (one swallow doesn't make a spring)

Ostrich-like approche - politique de l'autruche, f

Overprotective mother - mère-poule, f (mother hen)

Parroting - faire le perroquet

Partner - poule, f (hen - slang, retro)

Poison-pen letter writer - corbeau, m (crow)

Pothole - nid de poule, m (hen nest)

Proud as a peacock - fier-e comme un coq/paon

Putting pen to paper - prendre sa plume (taking one's quill)

Quarrel - prise de bec, f (beak fight)

Quill - plume, f (feather)

Recorder - flûte à bec, f (beaked flute)

Ripping off - plumer (plucking one's feathers)

Scatterbrain - tête de linotte, f (linnet head)

Screaming bloody murder - pousser des cris d'orfraie (screaming like a white-tailed eagle)

Shark/vulture - vautour, m

Showing off - faire le paon (doing the peacock)

Shutting up sbd - clouer le bec à (nailing someone's beak shut)

Simp - canard, m (duck)

Slow and steady wins the race - petit à petit, l'oiseau fait son nid (little by little, the bird makes its nest)

Snakes and ladders - jeu de l'oie, m (goose game)

Standing on one's own two feet - voler de ses propres ailes (flying with one's own wings)

Strange person - drôle d'oiseau, m (funny bird)

Sticks and stones may break my bones (but words will never hurt me) - la bave du crapeau n'atteint pas la blanche colombe (the toad's slobber doesn't reach the white dove)

Sucker, fool - pigeon-ne (pigeon)

Swansong - chant du cygne, m

Sympathetic, nice - chouette (owl)

Tailcoat - queue-de-pie, f (magpie tail)

Taking under one's wing - prendre (smb) sous son aile

Thieving magpie - pie voleuse, f (bling-focused thief)

Tooth and nail - bec et ongles (beak and nail)

Tweet tweet - cui-cui, m

Ugly little duckling - vilain petit canard, m

Waiting impatiently - faire le pied de grue (standing on one foot like a crane)

Walking splay-footed - marcher en canard

Watch the birdie (before taking a photo) - le petit oiseau va sortir (the little bird is about to come out)

When pigs fly - quand les poules auront des dents (when hens will have teeth)

Wimp - poule mouillée, f (wet hen)

Woodcock - bécasse, f (silly goose, for women)

Written by - sous la plume de (under X's quill)

"Yeah, right!" - et mon cul, c'est du poulet? (is my ass chicken?)

Putain - fuck (or whore, retro)

Merde - shit

C'est de la merde - it is shit (quality)

C'est la merde - this is shit (situation)

Putain de merde, pu-tain, nom de Dieu - fucking hell

Fait chier - dang it

Bordel - fuck, a mess

Saloperie(s) - dirty tricks, bitch

Nique ta race/ta mère/toi - fuck off

Va te faire foutre - fuck you

Dégage - get away from me

Tu me casses les couilles - you are pissing me off

Connard/connasse - jerk

Bouffon, enfoiré, enculé, blaireau, bâtard - bastard (m)

Salaud - bastard (m, retro)

Salope, sale pute, sale chienne, garce - bitch (f)

Pétasse, (sale) pouf - tart (f)

Trou du cul, trou de balle - asshole

So like a long time ago I had a professor that I absolutely adored. She happened to be Japanese American. She grew up speaking Japanese at home but never really spent a lot of time in Japan. She mostly spoke with other Japanese Americans and read books.

So one day early in her teaching career there’s an exchange student from Japan who’s having a hard time understanding a concept so she explained it to him in Japanese and then he looked absolutely rattled. Like in shock. Pale.

This is how she learned that the way she speaks Japanese makes her sound like a gang member.

None of them are easy

They’re all stupid and terrible and will kick you in the nuts

That being said

Languages similar to ones you already speak

Languages you have a lot of motivation to learn

Languages that have a lot of resources and media to watch and/or listen to and/or read

So, if you’re reading this with relative ease (aka you speak English fluently) probably French or Spanish

Do whatever you want though idk

Don’t just choose a language based on how easy it is

Unless that’s what it takes to keep you motivated idk

This is a great blog on how to start reading books in Japanese. Even if you already read in Japanese, it has some interesting things to think about in the way you approach Japanese books.

Inhae is one of several bloggers who read in Japanese and write their book reviews in English. It's a bit of a niche within a niche, but for anyone learning Japanese and interested in reading in Japanese, it can be really useful to read about other readers' progress and insights. (These blogs are also great for getting book recommendations or finding out about upcoming Japanese literature before it gets translated!)

Blogs that review Japanese books in English:

http://notes.inhae.blog/category/book-review/

https://jtalkonline.com/

https://brainvsbook.wordpress.com/

https://minimalistlanguagelearning.blogspot.com/

https://framedinbeige.com/

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

HeyJapan

Hiragana Quest

Infinite Japanese

kawaiiDungeon

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Oyomi Japanese Reader

renshuu

Takoboto Japanese Dictionary

Todaii

Qlango

Learning to write in Japanese, teaching others to learn to write in Japanese, and watching Japanese people write in Japanese has taught me that it’s hard to write in Japanese. Remembering how to write the kanji in the first place is hard (especially with the ease of writing in Japanese on the computer or phone), remembering the stroke order and then figuring out how to fit the character into the space that you have - these are all difficult. And then on top of that, you don’t want these beautiful characters to look like you were bouncing up and down on a dirt road while you wrote them.

Handwriting in any language varies by person. There are people whose handwriting is sloppy in Japanese, just as in any other language. My handwriting in English isn’t perfect either, but I want my kanji to look less like shaky squiggles and more like, well, a native Japanese speaker’s characters. So I decided to break down how I go about improving my Japanese handwriting.

Thus, a baby not only has to learn words and their meanings but also learn to segment lots of sounds INTO words. Doyouwantalittlemoresoupyesyoudoyoucutie. Damn.

When she talked about HOW babies learn to segment words our professor said, and I love it, "babies are little statisticians" because when listening to all the sounds, they start understanding what sound is likely to come after another vs which is not.

After discussing lots of experiments done with babies, our professor added something that I already knew somewhere in my brain but didn't know I know: All this knowledge is helpful when learning an L2 as well:

Listen to natives speaking their language. Original speed. Whatever speaker. Whatever topic.

It is NOT about understanding meaning. It is about learning the rhythm of the language, getting a feeling for its sound, the combination of sounds, the melody and the pronunciation.

Just how babies have to learn to identify single words within waves of sounds, so do adults learning a language. It will help immensely with later (more intentional) listening because you're already used to the sound, can already get into the groove of the languge.

Be as brave as a baby.

Beginning

初めに　はじめに　to begin with (first of all)

まず　to start with (first of all)

最初に　さいしょに　first

第一に　だいいちに　first of all

劈頭第一　へきとうだいいち　first and foremost

Continuation

次に　つぎに　next

更に　さらに　furthermore

そして　and (thus)

そのうえに　in addition (furthermore)

また　also

並びに　ならびに　both ～ and ～ (～ as well as ～)

及び　および　and (as well as)

それだけでなく　not only ～ but also ～

のみならず　besides (as well as)

しかも　however

すでに　already

その結果　そのけっか　as a result

それにしては　considering that

それに対して　それにたいして　in contrast

ため　in order to (because of)

というのは　the reason why is

にしたがって　following (in accordance with)

にとって　for (concerning)

によって　due to (because of)

一方で　いっぽうで　on the one hand

まったく　really, truly, entirely

全て　すべて　overall (in general)

多数の　たすうの　majority

必ず　かならず　definitely

急速に　きゅうそくに　rapidly increasing

ますます　increasingly (more and more); decreasingly (less and less with negative)

次第に　しだいに　gradually (little by little)

現在　げんざい　nowadays

確かに　たしかに　it is true that... but

要すると／要するに　ようすると／ようするに　in short

非常に　ひじょうに　extremely

絶対　ぜったい　absolutely

誠に　まことに　absolutely

によると　according to

したがって　accordingly (therefore)

事実上　じじつじょう　actually (as a matter of fact)

だって　also

それに加えて　それにくわえて　in addition to this

Ending

結局　けっきょく　after all

最後に　さいごに　in closing, in conclusion

要約すると　ようやくすると　in summary

つまり　to sum up, in the end

結論は　けつろんは　in conclusion

結論というと　けつろんというと　to conclude

このように　thus, hence

全体的に　ぜんたいてきに　overall, on the whole

Thanks for the ask! My favourite short story collection in simple Japanese is definitely the series どんどん読める！日本語ショートストリーズ by the publisher アルク.

There are three books in this series and it's the only Japanese short stories collection for learners of which I liked both the stories and the overall structure of the book. As you can see in the sample below, every kanji is accompanied by furigana, making it easier to read, and there are annotations for vocabulary above N3 and idioms.