One of the first things speakers of Western languages are made conscious of about Chinese is that it is a tonal language and conveying a sound in the wrong tone could render the message incomprehensible or, worse, offensive. I try and reassure my students that it is not as big an issue as it is often made out to be.
A particular incident, however, has made me change my mind about being so sanguine over tones not playing such a big part. During a conversation about what he had done over Christmas, including what presents he had given his parents, a student told me he’d given his mother a xiăo shū (“little book”, 3rd tone and 1st tone), which made sense. I then started to get a bit alarmed when he went on to describe his mother pruning and watering it. It turned out that he’d meant xiăo shù (“little tree”, 3rd tone and 4th tone)—a bonsai (which is the Japanese pronunciation for the Chinese version 盆栽 / pénzāi / “basin cultivate”).
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