Choose three of the following questions. Think about them, then write up a short paragraph for each in your Google Doc and share it with the instructor. You do not need to do any research to find the answers; these are questions for you to think about.

1) Why does Mandarin have four tones while Cantonese has 6 (or 7 or 8 or 9 depending on how you look at them)?

2) Are tones an efficient way of determining/distinguishing meaning in a language?

3) Can someone who is tone deaf learn Chinese? What happens to a Chinese person who is tone deaf?

4) If you spoke Chinese without tones, would people be able to understand what you say?