Studying Chinese

Today I collected 12 chinese words I know with the same, or almost the same sound: shi
They are:

事 (affairs),
是 (to be),
市(city),
世(world),
室(room),
視(-TV),
士,
匙 (spoon),
十 (ten),
時 (time),
師 (master),
獅 (lion)

One thing that took me a while to notice about learning chinese was about how chinese characters are not a difficulty, or something crazy you can only fear. They actually make things easier. First of all, it is pleasant and relaxing to write them. And most of all, it just feels right, when you learn to write a word, because then you know it is unique, and not just a bunch of phonemes that sound all the same. If you go to a class and the teacher says ok, shì means world, shí means time, shì means to be, room, tv... it would be scary for anyone... but if you know how to write each of these words, and see the pinyin only as a guideline, and not as the word itself... it all makes sense.
And the more words you know, the easier it gets for you to learn more. At least so far for me...