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”).
(London)
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