Learning Chinese: tones (London)

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”, 3^rd tone and 1^st 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”, 3^rd tone and 4^th tone)—a bonsai (which is the Japanese pronunciation for the Chinese version 盆栽 / pénzāi / “basin cultivate”).