Atonement

1st tone - Constant and raised in pitch
2nd tone - Rising in pitch
3rd tone - Falling, then rising in pitch
4th tone - Falling in pitch

Spoken Mandarin has four specific tones (actually five, but one is just neutral). The meanings of words may be drastically altered with the varying tones.
For example the word 'ma' spoken in first tone means 'horse', second translates to 'mother', third 'to scold', and fourth means 'hemp'. (Ma also happens to be used as a sentence-suffix to form questions)
It sounds complicated, but realistically, Mandarin vocabulary is a quarter the size of English vocabulary. It's much easier to manipulate only one word four different ways than to learn four seperate new words.
The Chinese vernacular is also extremely concise, there's very little fluff.
If I were to ask in Mandarin: "Do you like Chinese food?"
The affirmative answer's English equivalent is simply the verb "like".

"Nee she-huan chung-goa tie ma" (Do you like Chinese food?)
"she-huan" (Like)
_____

Anyway, I feel the need to document my linguistic advances only for my own benefit. I find it really helpful to write things down to review. It's not a means of flexing my skills, which are poor at best.


- UPDATE - JP is picking me up from the HK airport, which is a HUGE answer to words. Following my arrival I will be taking a train west to a city called Nanning where there is an apartment set up for us. After a couple of days we will then venture further westward to a city called Kunming.