Chinese

Chinese words are like Chinese bicycles. There are so many of them and sometimes they are hard to tell apart. When I first started learning Chinese I was told that "wo shi" means "I am". This last week I learned from my teacher that "wo shi" can also mean bedroom. Early on I learned that if I "mai" something and say it short and hard it means" to buy" but if I say a scooby dooby doo "mai", dragging it out and going down and up I am saying "to sell". There are many of these words in the Chinese language mainly because of the four tones. The word can be spelled the same but sound different and by using the wrong tone you say something else. You can imagine the trouble this could create for a foreigner. At this point I don't think that I have ever offended anyone. My favorite of these words it "ma". If you say it in the first tone, kind of like singing "do" from do re mi it means "mom". Beware though because if you use the wrong tone you will be saying horse. Hmmmmm I wonder who came up with this language.