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.
单只鹦鹉不可能在寻找水果的同时留意捕食者，它要依靠不停鸣叫的鸟群来保护自己。所以，想教能说话的鸟说话——比如鹦鹉、长尾小鹦鹉和八哥——你要找一只没有更好选择的鸟，它会把你当成鸟群。“不要找年老、沮丧的鸟，”72岁的宗师加纳帕蒂·萨奇达南达·斯旺米吉(Ganapathy Sachchidananda Swamiji)说。他不去世界各地为追随者用合成器演奏音乐时，就会呆在印度迈索尔邦自己的鸟类保护区。这里有1000多只鸟，包括约40只经过训练会说话的鸟。“买一只幼鸟。”具体来说，选一只在圈养环境中出生、长大的鸟（或者被搭救的鸟），不要选在野外捕获的鸟。

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.
斯旺米吉建议，头几个月，要用温柔的语调尽可能多地对小鸟说话，像安抚年幼的孩子一样安抚它。“不要急着让它们说话，”他说，“它们首先需要在心底里觉得安全。”一旦这只鸟认定你是可靠的伙伴和食物来源，它就会开始重复简单的句子。“一开始你要说，‘你很棒’‘亲爱的，你好吗?’‘我爱你’，”斯旺米吉说。很多训练者用坚果或种子奖励鸟儿说话；斯旺米吉和他的员工是每天提供三餐，不过他们偶尔也给鸟儿喝点奶茶。
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.”
当鸟儿开始表现出语言才能时，就可以加大难度，把你的声音录下来，反复播放给它听。斯旺米吉不在的时候，它的鹦鹉们反复听他吟诵古梵文的录音，每天最多听三个小时。他说，老听这个，人会感到厌烦，但是“鸟儿永远不烦。”