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Master Mandarin Pronunciation with Musical
Speech-Training & Personalized Instruction
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Hello Friend!
First off, can I just say that you’re awesome? The fact that you are taking the time to look into a course on Mandarin pronunciation speaks volumes.
We all know that Mandarin pronunciation is important since it’s a “tonal language.” But most Mandarin learners don’t invest the time to get the pronunciation down.
The main reason why is because they don’t know how to train Mandarin Pronunciation.
Your Chinese teacher can tell you “your tones are wrong.” But they won’t be able to tell you how to fix it. You won’t be able to hear how you are doing it wrong. And even if you could, you still don’t know what you need to do.
You can’t learn Mandarin pronunciation without direction. That’s where I come in.
I will show you exactly how to perfect your pronunciation so that you can speak Mandarin Chinese WITHOUT sounding like a foreigner.
Who am I, and why should you listen to what I have to say about Mandarin?
My name is Idahosa (pronounced ee-DOW-ssah) and I am fluent in six languages. My accent in Mandarin is so good that I can even trick native speakers into thinking that I’m one of them.
The secret to my language learning success is in my obsession with pronunciation. Pronunciation is the key to becoming fluent in Mandarin.
Do you have a problem with Mandarin conversation?
- Do you have a hard time understanding Chinese people when they talk fast?
- Do Chinese people have a hard time understanding you because your tones are so off?
- Do you have a hard time remembering new words and phrases unless someone writes them down for you?
- Do you have a hard time remembering the tones of these new words?
- Do you always feel embarrassed to speak Mandarin because of your foreign accent?
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, let me ask you this: “How much time and energy have you invested in Mandarin pronunciation training?"
Most likely you have invested little. I don’t blame you for this - perhaps you had no idea where to start until you found this website.
But I guarantee that if you focus on Mandarin pronunciation now, you will start to feel your Mandarin learning pains fade away within a week.
- You will start to tune into the nuances of Mandarin sound and recognize more words in fast speech.
- Your tongue and lips will start to loosen up and the words will flow out naturally.
- You will start to recognize sound patterns and remember new words and expressions faster.
- You will start to impress native speakers with your more authentic accent.
Pronunciation First,
Everything Else Second
No matter what the packaging is, all of the traditional approaches teach literacy first, pronunciation last.
Mandarin literacy is of course a useful skill, but you have to ask yourself this question at some point:
“Is my goal to read Chinese newspapers or to communicate with Chinese people in real-life conversations?”
If your goal is to fluently communicate with Chinese people, then the traditional approach will fail you.
Think about it – when was the last time you heard this conversation?
“Wow John you speak Mandarin so well! How did you become so fluent?”
“Rosetta Stone, baby!”
The key to becoming conversationally fluent in Mandarin is to focus on Mandarin pronunciation first, everything else second.
You are on a plane headed for Beijing and the flight attendant makes an announcement in Mandarin. Then you repeat the announcement out loud to yourself with perfect pronunciation.
“请系好安全带”
Even though you can mimic the phrase with perfect intonation, you have no idea what it means.
How’s this possible? Because before you dove into Mandarin vocabulary, grammar and writing, you took the time to prime your ears, mouth and brain to Mandarin sounds.
In other words, you focused on pronunciation first, everything else second.
The flight attendant makes the exact same announcement later on in the flight. But this time you notice how everyone starts to buckle their seatbelt as soon as she says it.
That’s how you figure out what it means – “Please buckle your seatbelt!”
The pronunciation of the phrase came first, then the meaning came second.
Fast forward 2 days later. You are stepping into a taxi with your new local friend – Zhang. She wants to take you to her favorite restaurant for soup dumplings.
The taxi starts to move forward, and you notice that Zhang has still not buckled her seatbelt. She is giving the taxi driver directions and must have forgotten.
Recalling your experience on the airplane, you say to her:
“请系好安全带!”
Zhang stops mid-sentence, turns to you, and stares at you in shock.
“I thought you didn’t speak Mandarin!”
Your pronunciation was so good that she thought you were already fluent. You laugh and think to yourself:
“I guess I’ll just have to get used to this sort of reaction…”
In this course you will learn how to pronounce phrases with a perfect accent before you know what they mean.
You might be wondering:
“What’s the point of knowing how to pronounce something if you don’t know what it means?”
As you saw in the story above, it’s not too difficult to learn what something means after the fact. You just need to pay attention.
The real challenge is learning how to pronounce that something in the first place. But I like to flip the question:
“What’s the point of knowing what something means if you don’t know how to pronounce it?”
You can learn to read and write the phrase “buckle your seatbelt” but if you can’t properly pronounce it then people won’t understand you.
If your goal is to communicate with real Mandarin speakers...
focus on pronunciation first & everything else second.
Common Mandarin Mistakes
If you are already making these common Mandarin learning mistakes, then it is time for you to try The Flow of Mandarin.
You use Pinyin as a crutch:
Most people begin learning Mandarin by learning Pinyin. This makes you reliant on visual media to learn new things in Mandarin. By using the written word as a crutch, you deny your ears the opportunity to adapt to the sounds of Mandarin.
You obsess over grammar:
Grammar is important, but do you really need to memorize all those charts and technical terms? Do you think Chinese people know all that high level grammar stuff? How is it that a child or uneducated person can speak English fluently without ever knowing what a “preposition” is?
You have a habit of pronouncing everything as if in English:
I get it – Mandarin pronunciation is hard and no one showed you how to do it properly before, so you just default to English pronunciation because it’s easier. Problem is that you are now reinforcing bad muscle habits that take a lot of extra work to correct. You can reverse these bad habits but the more you build them the longer it will take you to fix them.
You always translate in your head:
Being fluent in Mandarin means you will think in Mandarin – you shouldn’t be translating English in your head. The only way to develop this skill to speak without thinking is to build a habit of mimicking.
You speak word for word:
Chinese people never speak Mandarin word for word. Instead, they blend words together naturally into larger phrases. This is the same for English and every other language.
The sooner you reverse these mistakes, the faster you will achieve your goal of reaching Mandarin fluency.
How to save yourself thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours
I learned Mandarin while on a university study abroad program in China.
Let me share with you how I came up with the idea of making a Mandarin pronunciation course:
I signed up for Mandarin my freshman year of college at Georgetown University. My older brother was currently living in China with his Chinese wife. He told me that the most important thing for me to do before anything else was master Mandarin tones.
So each day of my Mandarin class I spent hours listening to and mimicking the four tones in different words. At first, I couldn’t hear the subtle differences between them. But after spending my entire life training music, I knew that that if I concentrated on listening and repeating long enough it would come to me.
Within two weeks, I was able to appreciate Mandarin tones.
A year later, I traveled to Beijing and Shanghai, where I spent a year total in study abroad. Because I was able to mimic Chinese people so well, I was able to pick the language up very quickly.
But all my classmates were still struggling to do the most basic things in Chinese.
The problem was that they still had not learned how to pronounce things correctly in Mandarin. Not only did they struggle with the tones, they also struggled with the nuances of the consonants and vowels.
Over time, they were slowly able to understand bits of pieces of Mandarin, but whenever they tried to speak to Chinese people, no one had any idea what they were saying.
Their accents were too thick, and the Mandarin language is unforgiving of accents.
All my classmates knew that I was by far the most fluent in the class so they started asking me advice for how to train Mandarin pronunciation.
After some research, I started to work with friends on their pronunciation using simple drills. Their problem was that they thought about tones too academically. What they needed was to just listen more and focus on mimicry.
After a short time working with them I noticed some major breakthroughs in their speech. They didn’t have to think about tones as much anymore, they just sort of “felt” them.
This was something that the Chinese teachers (who never had to deal with struggling with tones as adults), were never able to do.
Several years later I refined these techniques into the course you see here – The Flow of Mandarin. It contains all these same techniques for getting over the Mandarin pronunciation hump.
Introducing The Flow of Mandarin
The Flow of Mandarin is unlike any other Mandarin learning program that has ever existed. In other programs, you focus on memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary lists. You don’t do any of that in The Flow of Mandarin.
Actually, it’s better that you do not think of The Flow of Mandarin like like a normal language course at all. Think of it more like a Q-tip, Yoga Class and Software Update:
The Q-Tip for your Mandarin Ears.
It will swab out the “interference” of your native language so you can hear Mandarin sounds more clearly.
The Yoga Class for your Mandarin Mouth.
It will stretch out your lips and strengthen your tongue so you can articulate Mandarin sounds effortlessly.
The Software Update for your Mandarin brain.
It will re-format the language centers in your brain so that you can absorb new Mandarin words and expressions naturally.
It took me several years of building, testing and tweaking to perfect the process of Mandarin pronunciation training. Luckily, you don’t have to go through all that trouble at all.
All you need to do is follow the instructions in the course modules and you will master Mandarin pronunciation in a matter of weeks.
Since releasing this course, I have helped thousands individuals from around the world master their pronunciation in Mandarin and other languages. You can do the same.
How the Training Works
In the video below, I walk you through the course content and training process.
Phonetic
Practice
Familiarize yourself with the core sounds of Mandarin and teach yourself the basics of "tuning" your ear and mouth to those sounds.
song training
Learning to sing & mimic Mandarin song is everyone's favorite part of the course. The process of articulating these lyrics tunes your ears, brain and mouth to the sounds of Mandarin.
personal
Feedback
We listen to your recordings to pinpoint the exact sounds you mispronounce, then tell you exactly what you need to do with your mouth to fix the error.
speech
Therapy
Through a process of "re-tuning", I will help you rapidly eradicate pronunciation weaknesses and sharpen your Mandarin ears, mouth and brain.
Example Flow Training Session
Here’s another example of how the training works. After each lesson, should be able to repeat these lyrics with perfect pronunciation.
Start with the Rhythm
First, you will chant along with the track below to ingrain the core rhythm into your auditory memory.
Pronounce the Syllables
Once you have the rhythm down, your next task is to make sure you can pronounce each syllable. When you take the course, we do an audit of every single Mandarin syllable to make sure you can pronounce each one perfectly.
Build Your Capacity
The next step is to combine the syllables and rhythm. In this step, we keep it all the same tone. We do it this way so you can focus on one piece of the puzzle at a time. Listen closely to the track below and repeat after me.
Infuse the Tones
Now that your mouth is used to the movements, we can focus just on the tones. We do this by changing all the syllables to “ma” and focusing on getting the tones perfect. See if you can match my tones in the recording below.
Put it all back together
Finally, we can add the tones back into the phrase and practice chanting along with the original artist at slow speed. Sing along with the track below to see how you do.
This song-training system is extremely effective at developing the pronunciation skills you need to mimic Mandarin. We use song is because learning these new motor skills requires a lot of repetition and music is the only context repetition is actually fun.
But like anything else, you will inevitably miss a few details. That’s where I come in.
I studied Mandarin for a full year in Taiwan and conversed with people in Mandarin daily. People I spoke to in Taiwan consistently said I had an impressive accent.
But within five minutes of starting this course I learned that I was mispronouncing one basic sound (the ‘h’) and I leveled up my pronunciation immediately.
The course managed to get even better from there, and progressively harder as well so that I was constantly challenged. Now that I have finished the course I feel much more confident in my Mandarin pronunciation. Thanks, Idahosa!
Samantha AlvarezFlow of Mandarin Student
7 Reasons The Flow of Mandarin Can Work For You
Why would you want to start the Flow of Mandarin right away? Here are just a few reasons:
1) Resolve all your unanswered questions about Mandarin pronunciation
Have you ever had this frustrating experience: you say a word in Mandarin and a native speaker tells you that you are pronouncing it wrong? But you can’t hear the difference between what you are doing and what he is doing.
You ask him to explain, but his answer doesn’t make any sense: “You gotta open your throat more. You know… it’s like a more happy type of sound.”
Here’s the truth – no one has any idea what they are talking about when it comes to pronunciation. It requires many years of study and hands on experience speaking many languages.
But after you go through the first unit of The Flow of Mandarin, you will have several “aha!” moments and finally understand exactly what’s going on in the mouths of Mandarin speakers. And of course you can always ask me specific questions throughout the training process.
2) Identify the fundamental sounds that you struggle with the most
The first thing you do in the Flow of Mandarin is submit a recording of yourself saying every Mandarin sound. Then I will tell you which sounds you are mispronouncing.
These will be the sounds that your ears, mouth and brain have not adapted to yet. These are your personal Mandarin sticking points that no one ever pointed out to you before. As soon as you know them, you will be able to narrow your energy toward fixing them. Curious to find out what your sticking points are?
3) Get some emotional support from a real human being
I’m a cool guy, I promise! I am personally invested in your Mandarin development and won’t be satisfied until you get everything perfect. I can be tough and make you practice something over and over again until you get it right – but once you do you’ll be more than thankful. Sometimes all it takes is a little support from a real human being to help you get through the steepest learning curves.
4) Learn some catchy Mandarin songs to impress your friends with
For the most part, music is just a tool for us to help you master pronunciation the fastest way possible, but there’s cultural value as well. After you learn the first few song lyrics you will discover the joy of being truly involved in a foreign culture. It’s no longer just academic stuff – you know the music! I guarantee that your Chinese friends will be thoroughly impressed 🙂
5) Unblock your Mandarin ear canal
After a week of training, you will start to notice that Mandarin will sound different to you. If you hear natives speaking in the street or listen to Mandarin TV or radio, you will start to recognize all the fundamental sounds you trained.
Before taking this course, your ear will not be open to Mandarin sounds – but this training program will immediately unclog those sound pipes. The words you know will become more clear to you, and the ones you don’t know yet will be more memorable.
6) Boost your speaking confidence
Does your accent make you nervous about speaking Mandarin? When you’re nervous you end up speaking worse, and the worse you speak the more nervous you get. It’s a vicious cycle. Choosing NOT to speak up in situations is the worst thing ever because speaking is the ONLY way to fluency.
Once you improve your pronunciation, your words will flow and sound more authentic. Imagine not worrying about people judging you for your thick accent or excessive stuttering and mumbling. That boost in confidence is exactly what you need to speak more and speed up your progress toward Mandarin fluency.
Guaranteed Results
If you go through the the Flow of Mandarin, here’s what I’ll promise you:
Guarantee #1: No Gimmicks
“Learn Mandarin with music? Is this just some sort of gimmick?”
I know other programs that talk about “the magic of music for language learning,” but they’re just all fluff. The Flow of Mandarin is thorough and pragmatic.
Guarantee #2: Your brain will wrinkle
The first thing you will notice is that the training is challenging. You will not casually read or listen to things. Rather, you will be forcing your ear and mouth to adapt to new sounds and commit sequences to your auditory memory – not easy!
If you work through the challenge, your brain will reshape. You’ll feel your growth the next day after you give your brain time to grow with a full night of sleep.
Guarantee #3: No Deadlocks
Yes, each lesson will have its own challenges. But I designed the lessons to take no more than 30 minutes or so.
The lessons also get progressively more intensive over time. This way, you can gradually build confidence and fundamental hearing and speaking abilities as you move along. It’s designed for you to NOT get stuck forever.
Guarantee #4: You will have fun.
The addictive power of the song training is beyond even my comprehension. Our brains are wired to enjoy any activity involving music and language and that is exactly what this course provides you.
No more boring text book reading, let’s really learn Mandarin at the source. Because at the end of the day, all language is really comes down to sound.
Guarantee #5: You will Notice Drastic Improvements
The Flow of Mandarin is unlike any other Mandarin course that has ever existed on the web. Most people expect a textbook with vocabulary and grammar drills. They don’t know what to make of The Flow of Mandarin training program when they hear about it.
They think: “If I’m not studying vocabulary and grammar, then what could I be learning?”
I can never truly communicate the feeling to you in writing. The only way to understand is to do the training yourself and feel the results.
100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE
That’s why I am absolutely confident in giving you a better than 100% money back guarantee. If at any time you are not satisfied with the training in these 60 days, just send me an email and I’ll refund you your order (no questions asked).
The handful of returns I have given have all been from people who never tried a single lesson. They were turned off by the challenge and couldn’t understand the value of working through it.
Those that did work through it have all had nothing but the highest praise to give.
So take advantage of my 60 Day Guarantee and start mastering Mandarin pronunciation today with The Flow of Mandarin.
Is it even possible for you to lose in this scenario?
The Most Affordable Mandarin Training on the Web
The Flow of Mandarin is dirt cheap compared to alternative that offer not even half of the value.
You could hire a private Mandarin tutor to meet with you in person. That will run you at least $20 an hour, and as much as $50 an hour if you want anyone who knows anything about Mandarin! Never mind that you’ll have to mull over what you’ve learned in your sessions and then try it again later.
Given my expertise, I could easily charge over $100 an hour training high level executive in Mandarin and the my other 4 languages, but I was never interested in that.
I created my system so that I would be able to train as many people as possible in a way that was convenient for both of us. The profit motive has always been secondary to my vision to change the way the world thinks about language.
There’s no need to use hundreds of dollars a month for private tutoring – because I’ve set the price at as low as I can. Plus, you will receive any and all future updates to the program for free, forever.
That’s right, this isn’t a subscription. It’s a once-off flat fee that gives you access to any and all future updates that we make to The Flow of Mandarin.
Is This Really For Me?
I get it – you’re not sure if The Flow of Mandarin is going to help you.
Because The Flow of Mandarin has worked for many people, rather than tell you who it is for, let me tell you who it is not for. If one of the below is NOT you – then The Flow of Mandarin will work for you. I’ll tell you who The Flow of Mandarin is NOT for:
Someone who is convinced that Mandarin pronunciation is NOT that important
I have met a few people who resist the idea that mastering pronunciation is the most fundamental step to mastering a foreign language. These are people who have convinced themselves that they are “tone deaf” and thus had to solidify themselves into language learning myths of “visual learning.”
What these people don’t realize is that the reason they struggle with pronunciation is NOT because they are tone deaf; it’s because they never had proper training. The Flow of Mandarin would give them what they need, but if you are too stuck in your ways you will never find that out.
Someone who is not willing to work through a challenge
As I’ve mentioned before, Flow Training requires a lot of mental energy and focus. It’s like weight training for the ear, brain and mouth. Every human being is capable of lifting weights and increasing weight as their muscles grow, but only some people are willing to put in the work.
If you are still searching for the non-existent “easy path” to Mandarin, this course is not for you.
Someone who refuses to accept that they are NOT actually Tone Deaf
Tone deafness is a pathological condition that only affects 1% of the population. Funny enough, over 60% of people self-report themselves as “tone deaf” in surveys.
Tone deafness means you are physiologically incapable of processing certain nuances of sound. The 60% of people who claim to be tone deaf are really just saying that because they haven’t trained their voices to sing. That’s like saying “I am genetically incapable of riding a bicycle” after only trying a few times and falling.
If you refuse to accept the fact that you CAN master Mandarin pronunciation with hard work and proper training, then then this course is not for you.
Someone who is simply unsure if this is for them
We love all our customers, but it goes both ways – we want our customers to enjoy and use their training too. If you are unsure about The Flow of Mandarin, please don’t buy it yet.
Someone Looking for a vocabulary and grammar course
Just to be clear, you do not learn any vocabulary or grammar in this course. You can easily find that anywhere else on the web. In the Flow of Mandarin we focus on the essential skill that you won’t get anywhere else – the ability to hear, correctly pronounce and mimic native Mandarin Chinese.
Common Questions about The Flow of Mandarin
Q: Can I take this course as a complete beginner?
Intermediate and Advanced speakers will definitely have more “aha!” moments as they realize all the things that they learned wrong in the past, but I honestly believe that pure beginners have the most to gain. If you focus on Mandarin pronunciation first, you are priming your brain to acquire Mandarin as quickly and efficiently as possible. You are also saving yourself the trouble of unlearning the mistakes that advanced speakers picked up while learning with the wrong sounds.
Q: How Long Does Training Take?
If you train 5 days a week, you will complete this course in 6 weeks. Most people take around 8-12 weeks to complete the course.
Q: Do I have to train every day? Do I have to start right away?
The Flow of Mandarin is self-paced. You can start whenever you want and go through the materials at whatever speed you like. I will only give you feedback when you submit a recording. That can be every day or once a week. It is all based on your schedule and convenience.
Q: Will I learn any vocabulary or grammar?
In each unit there is a “Mimicry & Meaning” section. In it, you practice mimicking a native speaker saying the phrases normally without singing. Once you can mimic, you will then learn what the phrases mean. This will be the only time that you will learn any vocabulary or grammar in the course.
Q: Can I do this course on all my devices?
All the materials of this course are accessible via your computer, tablet or smartphone. However, iPhone/iPad are the only devices that are not currently supported by our feedback system. Despite that, you should use your computer for the best experience.
I don't learn languages, I learn people - and people connect through sound. Whether you are a complete beginner or have been learning Mandarin for years, my hope is to welcome you as a Mimic Method student soon.
Keep on Flowin!
-Idahosa
Idahosa NessFounder of The Mimic Method