Understanding Betty and The Flock
During the past few weeks I have had a few people email and tell me they can't understand much of what Betty and Toovic are saying. It seems no matter how hard some people try all they can do is just hear birds chirping. I don't have all the answers when it comes to explaining why this phenomenon exists, but I will try and give you a couple of theories that might help.
It took me quite a while to convince people that Victor was talking. Even now there are some that still can't understand anything he says. But unlike Victor, Betty and Toovic mix in bird chirps with their talking. What I mean to say is they basically "chirp the word out." So in a way it does kind of sound like a chirp. If you listen carefully however, you can hear perfectly formed words within these chirps. Over 90% of the chirps you hear in the audio files are them talking their main language, English with a chirp or bird accent.
In a way it is similar to understanding other accents. For example a person who has a French or Irish accent and tries to speak English. If you are not use to listening to that type of accent, you may not be able to understand much of what they are saying. So it really depends on how much practice you have listening to the accent and how deep it is with the individual.
Additionally, understanding them is similar to listening to instruments in a song. Only a small percentage of people might be able to pick out all of the different instruments playing in a song. How many different instruments each person is able to hear depends on the individual. Just because everyone can't hear all the same instruments playing, doesn't mean those instruments aren't there. Some people have an ear for it and some don't. Some may be able to get it by working on it and some won't get it at all. So don't feel bad if you can't understand them. Hopefully you are one of the lucky ones that have an ear for listening and understanding birds. I must warn you though, if you are one of the lucky ones, don't expect other people to be able to understand them like you do. I use to get upset when I would play one of Victor's files to someone and they couldn't understand it. A few times it caused resentments but I have learned now that I shouldn't expect everyone to understand him like I do and it doesn't really bother me any more if they don't.
