Comment by mlrtime

Right but those Mandarin tones are pretty easy for an native english speaker to learn to say, they roll off the mouth easily.

Likewise, learning to speak the tone is just another grammar dimension, memorization.

Listening for tone is the hard part, but once you know enough grammar AND know the context of the sentence, it falls into place.

YMMV, also Cantonese is more difficult here (IMO).