Chinese is a Scary and Dangerous Language
originally posted May 17, 2010

Consider: 

老师 lǎoshī n. teacher,

捞尸 lāoshī recover the body of a drowned person.

老实 lǎoshi s.v. honest; frank

老是 lǎoshi adv. always

老式 lǎoshì attr. old-fashioned; outdated

落事 làoshì v.o. 〈coll.〉 suffer a mishap

老 屎 lǎo shǐ  old shit

Note that except for the tones, these all have the same pronunciation.  I haven't even started to talk about the close variations, like 老鼠 lǎoshǔ, which means "mouse".

我是一个英语老师  I am an English teacher.  我是一个英语老屎?  I am an English old shit?  我是一个英语老鼠? I'm an English mouse? 

Like I said, scary language.

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