That Chinese one sounds a bit similar case as the Thai one.
I think all languages where the meaning of the spoken word changes completely due to (wrong) intonation are totally messed up. I don't want any of that crap! I want to be understood even when I'm in flu. Finnish is perfect for that,
Not to mention languages where you have to separately learn both how to pronounce, and spell, different words. Starting from English. No wonder English speaking countries must have "spelling bee"-contests for kids, as if it is some kind of big achievement if you know how a spoken word is written. Why don't you simply pronounce it as it is written, like we do in Finnish (save for maybe "ng" as in "kengät" (shoes), which is a single special case)? All languages should be written phonetically.
My English teacher used to say that in English "home" is pronounced differently depending on whether it means the place where you live, or if it is your surname. "houm" vs "hjuum", or some such shit. He claimed the story behind it is that in some battlefield a messenger was shouting "Home? Home?" while he was delivering a message to someone called Home, but others thought it meant the war has ended.
Maybe the teacher was talking out of his ass, I dunno. Doesn't sound like a plausible story.