China Jon's Syncretic Journal

1 = E
2 = R
3 = Sun
4 = Suh (There is no English sound for this really. It is a sound between 'sue' and 'suh' sort of like Su with a touch of 'r')
5 = Wo (Not the long E sound, Sort of a 'wuh' bent toward the 'o')
6 = Leo - just like the lion! hahaha
7 = Chee - like in cheap :-)
8 = Ba - like in Ball.
9 = Geo as in National Geographic :-)
10 = Sure
0 (Zero) = Ling
100 = Bye as in 'good bye'

To save time, chatters will write 88 to mean 'bye bye.' They can also do things such as 555 to mean woowoowoo or the sound of crying!

These also have 'tones' with means that if there is no context in which to figure out the meaning, the sound has to be sung in a way that lets the Chinese listener know which meaning is being used. Similar to the sound 'to' in English. We spell the words 'to' 'too' or 'two' and we depend on context to let us know which 'to' we mean. Chinese is more sophisticated and has added tones to the word's basic sounds to specify the meaning without having to spell it out. Of course the language has been polished for thousands of years and some things have been dropped from use.

For example English has 'he' 'she' 'him' and 'her' to be a little specific about who you are talking about, while in Chinese, these have been reduced to 'ta'. This is one reason why Chinese people - when speaking English - often use 'he' or 'she' or 'him' and 'her' incorrectly.
English has 'they' and 'them' which have been reduced to 'ta-men'
English has 'we' and 'us' while this is reduced to 'wo-men'

Mandarin has 4 tones. Sort of like 'down' 'up' 'straight' and 'dipped' Other Chinese languages have up to 7 tones! This means a sound such as 'Ma' can mean either 'mother' or 'horse' or other things depending on the tone used. But since the context is not likely to mix up the meanings, it is doubtful that the listener will think you are talking about how much you miss your horse's cooking! ha ha ha!

But it is possible to make funny mistakes! The similarity of 'sh' and 'zsh' sounds is often hard for me to speak correctly. I wanted to order a cup of hot coffee, with sugar and a spoon. (So I could stir the coffee) What came out was 'I would like a sister-in-law in my soup. ha ha ha!

I guess they think I am a pretty funny guy! I am just glad that the word for 'spoon' sounds like the word for 'sister-in-law' and not 'boiled-fish-head!' That context would have given me a big surprise!