Languages and Confidence I think a lot of speaking a language well comes from being confident about trying and experimenting and not being afraid of saying the wrong thing. I've ordered the wrong thing at restaurants a couple of times and bought something thinking it was what I was looking for. But making mistakes is okay. That's how you learn. The hardest thing I've found about the little Mandarin I know, are the similarities between some words. I remember asking a friend what 'Duì bù qí' (I hope that's the correct pinyin) means and she had absolutely no idea what I was saying because I got the tones wrong. If you were brought up speaking a tone-ignorant language, it can be quite tough to grasp.