Language Learning,"This Means No More Chicken Heads For Dinner!!"

Elise and I have had 2 chinese lessons and we are wondering how the heck we are going to get this language thing down. Chinese is a tonel language so you can say the same word 5 different ways and it means 5 different things. The 5 tones are, high which looks like this --, rising /, falling then rising \/, falling \, and neutral. Depending if the word has additional meanings one word could mean more then 5 differnt things for ex. ma. Ma with a high tone means mother, ma rising tone means hemp or numb, ma falling then rising tone means horse, ma falling tone means scold or swear, and ma neutral is used to ask a question so this one word means 7 different things depending on how you say it. (so you see our challenge)
Another challenge that Elise and I are tackeling since we are wei gor rens (foriegners) is learning pin yin. Pin yin was adopted in 1958 and is a system of writing chinese language using the Roman alphabet, but don't expect the chinese to understand this system. Pin yin is the first step in language learning. Just an example of how challenging pin yin can be, try to pronounce the letter "q." As an english speaking person you are probably trying to pronouce it the way you learned it in preschool or 1st grade, but in chinese you would be totaly taken back to school if you tried that, you pronounce it like saying the letter "g" in our alphabet. (again you see our challenge)
Elise has started language learning with her tutor and I have sat in on her classes trying to get a head start on my school, which starts March 2, let the fun begin!! Not all is bad in our language learning. We are learning much each class, so maybe soon we will be able to order good food and tell our local market friends we dont like our food starring at us.