mandarin lesson

hua..yesterday I have 4 hours of mandarin lesson which is equal 4 hours of tongue-twisting session..just learning the initials and finals and not forgetting the different tones (4 tones + the neutral tones)..
hahaha..ending up twisting my tongue till I couldn't straighten the tongue. because to say the pronunciation most of the characters, we have to roll up the tongue inside the mouth..and curl the lips for certain word such as "zhe, zhe..or yuan, nian"..also the "e" requires the tongue is to be curled inward...
hua..somehow i feel that english is much easier to pronounce (malay/indo nonetheless is still the easiest..perhaps because it is my mother tongue)..for non-malay/indo speaking the language is found to be difficult because the same words can have multiply meanings depennd on the word's usage in the sentences.
the same thing applied in chinese, I recalls how my mom often mentions that the same characted when is followed with various characters..the phrase may give very different meaning also. I think she must feel happy because I finally take up the mandarin course seriously and determine to learn it properly all over again.
Hopefully by the end of the semester I can speak in simple conversation using chinese =)