Map from the Foreign Service Institute: estimated time to learn a foreign language for an English speaker

submitted by Chipit from (i.redd.it)

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[–]Chipit[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

It helps a lot if you don't think of them as separate "tones" but rather completely different phonemes. That's how Chinese think of it, they would never confuse a second tone word with a fourth tone one.

[–]magnora7 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I know, I try to think of it like putting emphasis on the right syllable in English. If you emphasize the wrong syllable it sounds so very wrong. But this hasn't really "clicked" yet for me in a deep way. I think I just need more practice.