Tones

I have a feeling I'll be posting a lot about Chinese School. Thursday was class 2 of 14. We learnt that tones are important.

How important? Well, let's say you're in the middle of Beijing, and you want to ask a very attractive local a question, such as where's the bathroom, or other normal things that tourists ask.

However, you're not careful about which tone (there are 4 in Mandarin) you use. Your "Qing wen" which literally translates as "please ask" and means can I ask you a question, all of a sudden becomes "Please KISS"!!! Not exactly the same as what you intended...

Yes, tones are indeed important =)