Misunderstandings occur in Beijing on a daily basis if you’re a clueless foreigner like me with only a pocket full of poorly pronounced Chinese phrases to rely on. I suggest you incorporate a daily game of charades into your routine before coming here because miming is an essential tool to try and minimise the gravity and frequency of your misunderstandings. You will of course learn Chinese as you go, through lessons provided by the school, a private tutor, or just by picking things up here and there, but beware because Chinese is a language where the same word with a slightly different tone can mean something entirely different. These words are known as homophones and they can often have hilarious unintended consequences.
For example “xiong mao” means panda, but say it in a slightly different tone and it means chest hair. You may find yourself wandering around Beijing zoo asking bewildered locals where you can find the chest hair exhibit because you’re particularly excited to see the new baby chest hair everyone has been talking about. Perhaps you might have a really bad experience at a restaurant and you demand to speak to the owner or “ye zhu”. Say this slightly wrong and you will be indignantly requesting an audience with a wild boar. You could ask your Chinese friend how long they have been married to their husband or “lao gong” for? Get the tones wrong on this one and you will be referring to her husband as her “labourer”. Insert dodgy 80’s sexist humour here.
However I say embrace the misunderstandings that inevitably come with living in such a different society and culture. Chinese people have a very dry and knowing sense of humour and they will appreciate the hilarity of the well-meaning foreigner frantically miming something or accidentally asking for the former Communist Party leader Xiao Ping instead of a little bottle (xiao ping zi) in a shop.