Free 5-Day Email Course

Find Your
Mandarin Tones

5 lessons. 5 minutes each. The foundation that every other Mandarin course skips. Delivered to your inbox.

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mā 1st: high & steady
má 2nd: distinct rise
mǎ 3rd: low & creaky
mà 4th: distinct fall

Sound familiar?

You've studied tones. They still aren't sticking.

If a native speaker has ever looked at you with that polite, confused smile. It's not you. Mandarin is genuinely hard. But it's not insurmountable.

Most courses hand you a pinyin chart, play four audio clips, and say "now go practice." But that skips the two things that actually matter: training your ear to hear tones, and training your mouth to produce them.

The real problem? English is a stress-based language. Your brain was never trained to map meaning onto pitch. That's why tones feel slippery, not because you're tone-deaf, but because nobody showed you how to actually tune in.

"In just a couple of weeks of very determined studying I think I'm already further than I got with a full year of study, simply because tones were covered properly in week one."

This free course does exactly that. In five days, five minutes at a time, you'll build a physical framework for all four tones that you can apply to any word you encounter, in your own natural voice.

What's inside

Five lessons. One clear system.

Each email takes about 5 minutes to read and includes a short practice exercise. Sent every morning so you can practice before the day begins.

00

Your training plan starts tomorrow 🗺️

Set the map. Make your first recording. Commit to showing up. You'll come back to this recording on Day 5 and hear exactly how far you've come.

Day 0 · Welcome lesson

01

Why you feel "tone deaf" 🧠

Your brain was trained for stress, not pitch. Today you learn exactly why tones have felt so hard, and what changes the moment you understand how they actually work.

Day 1 · 5-minute read + exercise

02

Find your vocal extremes 🎵

Half your tones are pitches you already make. You'll lock in 1st and 3rd tone by finding the natural high and low boundaries of your own voice.

Day 2 · 5-minute read + exercise

03

Add the curves 📈

The trickier contours: the rise of 2nd tone and the fall of 4th. Plus the most common mistakes learners make, and exactly how to avoid them.

Day 3 · 5-minute read + exercise

04

Your voice already knows this ✨

Tone sandhi: how tones shift in real speech. The rules for 不 and 一 that no pinyin chart ever tells you. This is what makes your Mandarin sound natural.

Day 4 · 5-minute read + exercise

05

You sound different 🎉

Play back your Day 0 recording. Hear the difference. You've built a physical framework you can apply to any word you encounter, in your own confident voice.

Day 5 · Final lesson + next steps

Is this for you?

This is for you if tones have always felt just out of reach.

You don't need any prior experience with pinyin. You just need five minutes a day and a willingness to actually practice.

Your instructor

I'm Rita aka 范老师 (Fàn Lǎoshī) 👋

Rita, Fàn Lǎoshī

I have a Master's degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language from Beijing Language University. I've taught at Tsinghua University, Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and Harvard Beijing Academy. Over 15 years, I've taken Mandarin pronunciation apart piece by piece to understand exactly how native sounds are produced, and how to teach non-native speakers to produce them.

I know what it's like to struggle with a second language. I spent years working on my own English pronunciation, and when I discovered how sounds are actually formed inside the mouth: the role of stress, rhythm, and pitch, everything changed. In a few short weeks, the confusion stopped.

That same approach is what this course is built on. And it's the foundation of my full program, Finding Your Mandarin Voice, which has helped over 800 students finally get native speakers to understand them.

🎁

Completely free. No catch.

Find Your Mandarin Tones is a free 5-day email course. No credit card. No commitment. Just five short lessons that give you the foundation every other Mandarin course skips. If you want to keep going after Day 5, there's a full program waiting. That's entirely up to you.

Start Today

Find your tones in five days

Free. Your first lesson arrives tomorrow morning.

100% Free

What you'll receive

Frequently asked questions

Do I need any prior Mandarin experience?

No. This course works whether you're just starting out or have been studying for years and feel like something foundational is missing. The only requirement is that you're willing to practice.

How long does each lesson take?

About 5 minutes to read, plus a short practice exercise. Lessons arrive every morning so you can get your practice in before the day starts.

I've been studying for years. Will this still help me?

Yes, often most. The students who find this most transformative are those who've been studying for a while and realize something foundational was never covered. You'll identify exactly what to fix and have a physical framework for doing it.

What happens after Day 5?

Tones are the foundation, but they're only the first layer. On Day 5 you'll hear about Finding Your Mandarin Voice, the full program covering consonants, vowels, rhythm, reductions, and connected speech. Completely optional, and only if you want to keep going.

Is this actually free?

Yes. No credit card, no trial period, no catch. Five emails, five minutes each, completely free.

"I like the sound of my voice in Chinese now. And it sounds like me." 🎉

That's what's possible in five days. Start with your tones, the foundation everything else is built on.