印度精神領袖是如何訓練鳥兒說話的

A single parrot cannot forage for fruit and watch for predators at the same time; it depends on its chittering flock for protection. Therefore, to teach a bird that can talk — parrots, parakeets or mynas, for example — to talk, find one that for lack of better options thinks of you as its flock. “Don’t get an old, disappointed bird,” says Sri Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji, a 72-year-old guru who, when not traveling the world playing synthesizer concerts for his followers, can be found at his bird sanctuary in Mysore, India, home to more than a thousand birds, including some 40 trained talkers. “Buy a baby bird.” Specifically, opt for one bred in captivity (or rescued) rather than one snatched from the wild.

單隻鸚鵡不可能在尋找水果的同時留意捕食者，它要依靠不停鳴叫的鳥羣來保護自己。所以，想教能說話的鳥說話——比如鸚鵡、長尾小鸚鵡和八哥——你要找一隻沒有更好選擇的鳥，它會把你當成鳥羣。“不要找年老、沮喪的鳥，”72歲的宗師加納帕蒂·薩奇達南達·斯旺米吉(Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji)說。他不去世界各地爲追隨者用合成器演奏音樂時，就會呆在印度邁索爾邦自己的鳥類保護區。這裏有1000多隻鳥，包括約40只經過訓練會說話的鳥。“買一隻幼鳥。”具體來說，選一隻在圈養環境中出生、長大的鳥（或者被搭救的鳥），不要選在野外捕獲的鳥。

Swamiji advises spending as much time as possible the first several months talking to your bird in gentle tones, reassuring it as you would a young child. “Don’t hurry them to talk,” he says. “They need to feel security in the heart first.” Once the bird has confidence in you as a companion and reliable food source, start repeating simple phrases. “First you say, ‘You are very good,’ ‘How are you my dear?’ ‘I love you,’ ” Swamiji says. Many trainers reward learning with nuts or seeds; Swamiji and his staff provide three daily meals instead, though they occasionally treat the birds to a sip of milky chai tea.

斯旺米吉建議，頭幾個月，要用溫柔的語調儘可能多地對小鳥說話，像安撫年幼的孩子一樣安撫它。“不要急着讓它們說話，”他說，“它們首先需要在心底裏覺得安全。”一旦這隻鳥認定你是可靠的夥伴和食物來源，它就會開始重複簡單的句子。“一開始你要說，‘你很棒’‘親愛的，你好嗎?’‘我愛你’，”斯旺米吉說。很多訓練者用堅果或種子獎勵鳥兒說話；斯旺米吉和他的員工是每天提供三餐，不過他們偶爾也給鳥兒喝點奶茶。

As a bird starts showing aptitude, ratchet up the difficulty and repetition by recording your voice and playing it back to the bird. When Swamiji is absent, his parrots hear looped recordings of him chanting ancient Sanskrit for up to three hours a day. A person will be bored by this, he says, but “a bird will never bore.”

當鳥兒開始表現出語言才能時，就可以加大難度，把你的聲音錄下來，反覆播放給它聽。斯旺米吉不在的時候，它的鸚鵡們反覆聽他吟誦古梵文的錄音，每天最多聽三個小時。他說，老聽這個，人會感到厭煩，但是“鳥兒永遠不煩。”