The Parrot Who Knew 1,000 Words
(Real fluency is soulful, not robotic.)
Let me tell you a small story.
There was once this parrot. Bright green feathers, red beak, super sharp memory.
People would gather around to see it perform.
It could say 1,000 words. Really. Big words. Fancy English. Even with a slight British accent. People clapped, laughed, took videos.
One day, a little girl came to the park where the parrot was kept. She wasn’t there for the show. She was just sitting quietly near the tree, reading a small English poem from her schoolbook.
She wasn’t fluent. She wasn’t fast.
But the way she read the poem — slowly, softly, with feeling — it touched something.
The words weren’t big, but there was meaning.
There was emotion.
The parrot kept listening.
But it didn’t know what to do.
It had no response.
It couldn’t feel anything.
It had all the words — but no understanding.
That’s when I realised…
There’s a kind of fluency that looks impressive from the outside — but it’s hollow from the inside. How many people are chasing this kind of fluency?
They think if they speak fast, use high-level words, mimic some accent, then people will think, “Wow, he’s fluent.”
But that’s not fluency. That’s just… parroting.
Real fluency is not about showing off. It’s not about stuffing big words into your sentences or sounding like someone on YouTube.
It’s about being able to hear a poem—and feel it.
It’s about being able to express what’s inside your heart—even if your grammar isn’t perfect.
It’s about knowing what you mean—and saying it your way, honestly, clearly, calmly.
You see, a lot of people can speak “good English” but still sound robotic. Their sentences are correct, but there’s no life inside them. No softness. No realness. It’s like looking at a picture-perfect dish with no taste.
And that’s not what I want for you.
You’re not here to become a parrot.
You’re here to become a person who speaks with soul.
Even if you speak slowly. Even if you forget a word. Even if your accent is desi.
That’s okay. That’s real. That’s beautiful.
Fluency doesn’t mean “copying.”
It means connecting.
It means you speak in such a way that someone listens and says, “Haan yaar, I felt that.”
And when that happens, it doesn’t matter whether your sentence had an advanced phrase or a simple one.
What matters is that it was yours.
So here’s something I want you to try:
Next time you speak in English, don’t try to sound impressive.
Just try to sound honest.
Breathe. Think. Feel. And then say what you mean.
Not what you memorized. What you mean.Because even a parrot can speak fast.
But only a human heart can understand a poem.
