> which speakers of non-tonal languages generally have a really hard time with. Is this actually true? I only did some basic Mandarin, but its tonal system is

> which speakers of non-tonal languages generally have a really hard time with. Is this actually true? I only did some basic Mandarin, but its tonal system is so simple (and plainly transliterated) that it seemed like a non-issue to me. Done & dusted in a couple of hours or so, compared to the hundreds of hours needed for vocabulary, idioms etc. Not to mention the terrifying writing system. And I have no natural advantages, carrying a common disability (native monolingual English), and having only learned German previously.