Pet King

Chapter 272: Warmth in the Old Days

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Upon hearing this declaration from Richard, Zhang Zian was quite dumbfounded. He had been wondering why Richard cared so much about teaching the red-headed lovebirds to speak. It turns out that it was not just trying to help Guo Dongyue—Richard was very much concerned with the expression "repeating others’ words like a parrot", and it seemed to be taking this opportunity to prove that parrots can do more than just repeat words.

Of course, Richard could have its ambition, which was worth encouraging. The problem was — did it have enough time? It was hard to predict the rate of Guo Dongyue's mother's condition, which could quickly deteriorate at any time.

Time would wait for no man, and no bird.

Richard seemed to have seen through his suspicions, and it said with confidence, "Do you know about the relationship between language and memory?"

"That I do not know about. Language and memory are related?" Hearing the word "memory", Zhang Zian’s heart leapt, and he couldn’t help but think of Guo's mom’s conditions.

"Of course they are related." Richard raised its head and suddenly became a little bit sad, as if it was reminiscing on something that had happened long ago. "The brain is the most wonderful organ in a creature’s body and there are still many unsolved mysteries about brains. Patients suffering with Alzheimer’s disease will lose their short-term memories at first, then their long-term memories, but why won’t they forget about their language abilities?"

Zhang Zian thought carefully. Having a bit of a clue, he said, "I think language is a skill, just like riding a bike. Once you’ve mastered such skills, you will never forget them, right?"

"No. In essence, language is also a kind of memory, but a more profound one than long-term memory." Richard denied his conjecture, "There is a positive correlation between speaking and language memory—the more you speak and the more you hear others speak every day, the more your language memory will be strengthened accordingly—which is why language memory lasts longer than any other kind of memory, and why people will never lose their language memory until they are dead—unless they get aphasia. But it’s not that they have forgotten their ability to speak, aphasiacs just have forgotten how to extract language from their brains…"

Zhang Zian was getting increasingly confused, "What is your point?"

"Nothing. Those are just my feelings when I think of that elderly woman with Alzheimer’s disease." Richard was in a despondent mood and shook its head, "Let’s get back to talking about what you need to do."

"OK, tell me, I’m listening."

"Judging from the current situation, the quickest way to train the birds to speak requires the cooperation of two people, say, you and I." It pointed at Zhang Zian with its wings, and then pressed its wings on its own chest.

Zhang Zian suppressed his urge to point out that Richard was a bird rather than a human. It didn’t make sense to dwell on that.

"Specifically, what should I do?" he went on asking.

"Specifically, I will teach them some of the most basic vocabularies, such as how to pronounce ‘grey, green, red, bowl, pot, rice’, and other words in Chinese. When the time comes that they have grasped certain quantities of words, they will have to learn to combine those words by observing the interaction between you and me. For example, when seeing a red light, if they can say it correctly, as a reward, they can get food, otherwise the food goes to me. And then we exchange our roles and repeat the training several times. This is called the Model-Rival Method. "

Zhang Zian got the gist. It was similar to using conditioned reflexes to train ordinary animals, but was somewhat different.

After careful consideration, he put forward a request, "I understand that you’re thoughtful, but I don’t think this training can be completed very soon. You have to promise me that if your training takes a long time, you should at least teach them to read that poem first."

Richard didn’t mind at all and it agreed quickly, "No problem, it really won’t take a long time. Language learning is not a linear process, but it’s something like an 'epiphany'—you might spend one year, two years, or even ten to twenty years teaching an ordinary parrot to speak, and it will still be dumb. But as long as it speaks the first word, the first sentence, it will naturally master the ability to speak. Think about that, don’t you humans learn language in the same way?"

Zhang Zian thought about it, and found that what Richard said was actually true. Some infants could speak when they were less than one year old, while others didn’t learn to speak until they were almost two years old. The former children were not necessarily cleverer than the latter, whose 'epiphanies' just happened to arrive a little bit later. When babies learn to say "mommy", soon they are able to say other words like "daddy", "grandpa" and "grandma".

Richard raised its wings and pointed to the birdcage. "They have learned to say ‘grey’, which means they have been enlightened. It probably won’t take long for them to grasp a lot of commonly used terms. By then, not only can they read the poem, but also they can help the elderly woman live a normal life. "

Zhang Zian's thinking was stagnated for a few seconds before he realized what it meant by that. After returning from Guo Dongyue’s place, he told Richard what he had seen and heard in detail. He also mentioned that Aunt Bai was not very responsible for taking care of Guo’s mom. If Aunt Bai remained careless, Guo’s mom would be in danger sooner or later. Even though Guo Dongyue was not content with Aunt Bai, he could do nothing about it, for Guo’s mom only recognized Aunt Bai, and if Aunt Bai was replaced by another nanny, it’s hard to tell what Guo’s mom would do again out of suspicion and anxiety.

When speaking his concerns about Richard’s training method, Zhang Zian was just telling Richard what he really thought, and he felt uncomfortable if he didn’t say it outloud. Who said that patients with Alzheimer's disease were not suffering with pain? He clearly felt the puzzlement and anguish from Guo’s mom’s face. Especially when she was looking at Guo Dongyue, it seemed as if every pore in her face was filled with despair, like she was sinking into a deep and dark abyss, desperately waving her hands, trying to grasp at anything.

Though Zhang Zian spoke his mind inadvertently, Richard was listening carefully, and it thought of more aspects from these words. Richard was also faced with two ways: one was to simply teach the poem " Hymn of the Traveler " to the two red-headed lovebirds, and then its task had been fulfilled, and everyone was happy; the other way was to teach them how to really speak — not only could they justify for parrots’ speaking abilities, but they could also help the poor elderly woman and become her life assistant.

Not only did Guo’s mom remember Aunt Bai, she also remembered Little Purple and Yellow Pea Cake. She would never exclude the two birds from her life if they could truly speak.

After convincing by Richard, Zhang Zian couldn’t control his excitement anymore. Guo’s mom was so poor that everyone would feel sympathetic to her. Why not help her out if they had the ability to?

He picked up his cellphone, trying to inform Guo Dongyue as soon as possible, but then he put his phone down again. It was unnecessary to inform him now, because the chance to succeed was not one-hundred percent. Guo Dongyue had already suffered disappointments too many times. If this time, Zhang Zian gave him a very high expectation but he failed in the end, it would be a too huge of an emotional blow to Guo Dongyue.

Richard looked at the red-headed lovebirds in the birdcage, and at that moment, it felt like it was looking at itself in the old days—when it was the nervous and flinching African grey parrot that had just been brought into the laboratory, where it had felt the warmth of humans, the warmth of family, the warmth of love.

So, this time, Richard would not only give back the warmth, but also it would go further to make up for the regrets.