In any learning process there are phases, and moments of discovery. I had one of these in my Chinese studies on Friday. I knew, as you do, that there are four tones in Chinese (and I’m actually starting to hear them and be able to use them), and that the same word said in different tones has entirely different meanings. But I hadn’t run into one.

I thought I’d recognized a word, bu, and another, yisi, and I’m sorry to say that I felt quite proud of myself for a moment. Liz quickly sorted me out. It was a different bu, a different yisi.

And of course this made me realize that for every word I learn, there are three other possible words that will, in transliteration, look exactly the same. (This is why, in GUANXI: THE CHINA LETTER, we finally decided to start using tone marks on all Chinese.) And in speech it will be even more difficult, though of course, as in any language, one depends a good deal on context. Liz assures me that I will become familiar with phrases like Hen you yisi (‘how interesting’) and Wo bu hao yisi (‘I am humbled’ or something like that—one uses it politely to dismiss praise).