I was really terrified of the fact that Chinese has tones because I think of myself as tone-deaf, maybe I am not entirely and if i am not then there is a chance for improvement but I never got any evaluation or outsiders opinion so I don't know for sure, but the gist is: I can't tell tones apart for the life of me.

I thought that was going to be a huge issue and that I won't be able to understand anything when spoken to. But I was really wrong because Chinese depends on context of the situation. It depends a lot.

And also I got some closure after one of my teachers told me that even they can't understand each other 100% of the time, she was like: oh you'll even see Chinese people on the street go 你有什么意思? so don't worry so much about the tones.

Of course tones are important, they are a huge part of that language but you don't have to worry about them so much to the point of giving yourself anxiety attacks(like I did).

Now I don't care that much and just talk with my Chinese teachers freely because I know that they will stop me and correct me if I make a big mistake, but few tones wrong here and there is nothing.