Polly Want a Cracker

13 Oct Polly Want a Cracker

African Gray parrots have over 1,000 words in their vocabulary and can repeat a word they’ve heard only once or twice. Humans have between twenty and forty thousand words, although in the age of tweets and TikTok, that number has shrunk precipitously.  

Hearing the story of a hunt was likely the first experience humans had of language. The story would have been punctuated with grunts, animal calls, and gestures which put quite a bit of pressure on the listener to tweeze out the meaning. So, language developed in tandem with our ability to parse out meaning, emotion and nuance.

Since we are conditioned to listen carefully for the message of your presentation, let go of concerns over vocabulary, diction or accent. All of these can be modified, because language is produced by muscle groups that can be strengthened. And expand your vocabulary. The parrots might be gaining on you. 

The audio version of our 3-book set: Briefly Speaking was released by Amazon/Audible (https://tinyurl.com/2du46puj) this past Wednesday, October 10. David recorded all three books. We’ll give a free audiobook to the first twenty-five people who purchase the set on Amazon (https://tinyurl.com/4fdwbw34).