For westerners who struggle to hit the right note even in karaoke, learning Mandarin - the language spoken by most people in mainland China - can be daunting to say the least.

Mandarin is a tonal language, so the slightest mistake in pitch can radically change the meaning of a word. For example, the word "ma" can have four different meanings depending on the tone. A slip of the tongue and one could end up saying, "My horse is picking me up from school" or "I want to ride on mother".