So

How do you say this word? My conversation this afternoon with a dad reminded me that our tone of voice is even more powerful than our words. This dad asked me whether it is okay to respond with 'so'. Nothing wrong, right? Wrong. Seems his son had been using this word a lot when talking to his younger sister lately and to the father's ears it sounded very disparaging. The Chinese would say 'boh hor bean' to the sister's views at all. It was all in the tone of voice that the boy was using. So we tried out 'so' in various tones and we agreed that it is not the word so much as the tone that counted. Must watch my tone.