Originally Posted by
ElevatorEnthusiast
That’s good to know - and probably what I end up doing with listening to English (understanding context). I tried an online course before arrival that listened to my Mandarin pronunciation and kept screwing up the tones many times - thus, I was discouraged.
Then, I listened to “Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den” and just gave up ;-)
Many native Chinese speakers cannot manage the lion eating poet/40 vs 14/grapes and grape skin stuff - just like many native English speakers can't successfully say an anglo tongue twister.
Outside of extremely rural areas, the amount of foreign language that is needed to travel successfully, especially in this day and age with translation apps abound, is tiny. Don't over-stress about tones, polite phrases, using a not-quite-synonym, etc. especially if your appearance and/or style of dress are obviously foreign.