Finally understand why your pronunciation and tones KEEP TRIPPING YOU UP, AND EXACTLY HOW TO FIX THEM.
Build the Mandarin foundation
everything else depends on.
Master every pinyin sound and every tone with a structured course built for adult beginners. Wherever you're starting from, start here.
CLICK BELOW TO WATCH FIRST!
35,000+ followers learning Chinese across social media with Red Bamboo
CLICK BELOW TO WATCH FIRST!
35,000+ followers learning Chinese across social media with Red Bamboo
Discover why accurate pronunciation is the key to fluent Mandarin
Does this sound like you?
Native speakers keep switching to English the moment you try to speak.
You can't hear the difference between sounds like q, ch, and zh, let alone produce them.
Your tones come out flat, and you've watched conversations quietly fall apart because of it.
You've stitched together pinyin advice from ten different YouTube channels and feel more confused than when you started.
Progress stalls because you've never had a real roadmap, just scattered apps and recommendations.
Speak with clear, confident pronunciation that native speakers actually understand.
Hear and produce all four tones, plus the neutral tone most beginner courses skip entirely.
Apply tone sandhi automatically, including the rules for 不 and 一 that trip up most learners for months.
Connect and be encouraged by other Mandarin learners who are in the same stage as you.
See measurable improvement with the same Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment that book-end the course.
What You Will Get in This Course
Welcome & Pre-Assessment
Take the diagnostic that pinpoints your current pronunciation challenges and sets a clear starting baseline. Same assessment runs at the end so you can see exactly.
how far you've come.
Vowel Pronunciation Mastery
Master every Mandarin final, from the six core vowels to tricky combinations like ian, iang, and üe. Mouth-position diagrams and native audio for each one.
Consonant Pronunciation Mastery
Conquer the consonants that English speakers struggle with most: c/z/s, ch/zh/sh, j/q/x, and r. Tactile drills, minimal pair practice, and tongue-position cues that actually click.
Tone Mastery
Internalize the four tones and the neutral tone through pitch contour animations, tone pair drills, and call-and-response practice. Tone pairs are rated 1 to 10 by difficulty so you know where to focus
.
Tone Sandhi & Connected Speech
Learn the tone change rules that make real Mandarin sound the way it does, including the 不 and 一 rules most beginner courses leave you to figure out by accident.
Real-World Practice & Quizzes
Apply your new skills with sentence-level drills, dictations, and listening quizzes. Walk away knowing how to use Pleco, the dictionary every serious Mandarin learner relies on, including the non-obvious typing tricks most beginners never learn.
TESTIMONIALS
What our social media community is saying...
"I'm a beginner learning Chinese and I really like your content. Thank you!"
- Karen
"You are sharing first rate material here. Keep the great work going!"
- Christian
"Your teaching style makes it really easy to understand Chinese."
- Natty
MODULES
FOLLOW MY STEP BY STEP VIDEO TRAINING
Module 1 — Welcome & Pre-Assessment
Meet Blake, get oriented to the course, and take the diagnostic that pinpoints your current pronunciation challenges and sets a clear baseline.
Module 2 — Easy Initials
Start with the 11 Mandarin initials that are nearly identical to sounds you already make in English (b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h). Build confidence on day one, then learn to read the pinyin chart itself.
Module 3 — The "a" Finals
Master a, ai, ao, an, and ang. Five finals, each with its own short lesson and native audio.
Module 4 — The "e" Finals
Master e, ei, en, and eng, including the subtle distinction between the bare "e" sound and its English-friendly cousins.
Module 5 — The "i" Finals
Master all 11 finals built on i, including the tricky "i*" asterisk sound that hides inside zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci, and si.
Module 6 — The "o" Finals
Master o, ou, and ong with mouth-position diagrams that show you exactly where the rounding happens.
Module 7 — The "u" Finals
Master all 9 finals built on u, including ueng, the rarest final in the entire Mandarin language. Every sound gets its own lesson.
Module 8 — The "ü" Finals
Master ü, üe, üan, and ün, the four sounds with the umlaut that English speakers struggle with most. Includes the Pleco V-substitution trick for typing ü.
Module 9 — j, q, x Initials
Conquer the palatal initials that confuse nearly every English speaker. Tongue-position cues and minimal-pair drills until j, q, and x stop sounding the same.
Module 10 — z, c, s Initials
Master the alveolar initials with the aspirated vs unaspirated distinction taught explicitly, not left for you to figure out by accident.
Module 11 — zh, ch, sh, r Initials
Master the retroflex initials with tongue-position diagrams, plus the zhi/chi/shi/ri review lesson that ties the asterisk-i back to the consonants.
Module 12 — Tone Mastery
Internalize all four tones plus the neutral tone most beginner courses skip. Drill all 20 tone pairs (rated 1 to 10 by difficulty), learn the tone sandhi rules including the special rules for 不 and 一, and finish with the Post-Assessment so you can measure exactly how far you've come.
Become a master of Mandarin Chinese pronunciation
Build real Mandarin pronunciation confidence with the complete step by step pronunciation course.
Here's what you get:
Instant access to 66 short, focused video lessons across 14 modules
Membership in a supportive Mandarin pronunciation community for feedback
Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment so you can see measurable progress
Lifetime updates and new practice drills
Use code FIRST50 at checkout!
$127 $50 one time
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Meet Blake
Blake is the founder of Red Bamboo Chinese. He's been learning Mandarin for over 10 years, holds a degree in Education from an American university, earned formal Chinese language credits in college, lived in China for 5 years, and is HSK 4 certified.
He built Foundations because he watched too many beginners get stuck on pronunciation, give up, and assume Chinese just wasn't for them. Most of the time, the problem wasn't the learner. It was the lack of a real foundation.
This course is the structured first step Blake wishes he'd had. Carefully sequenced, honest about what's hard, and built around the pinyin chart that every Mandarin learner needs to master eventually.
His videos have reached more than 35,000 followers across social media. Foundations is where that work goes deeper, with the structure and accountability you can't get from scrolling.
Degree in Education from an American university
Formal Mandarin coursework with university credit
5 years living and studying in China
HSK 4 certified, currently preparing for HSK 5
10+ years of self-directed Mandarin study
35,000+ students and followers across social media
WHO IS THIS FOR...
Built for adult Mandarin learners who want a real foundation from day one
Absolute beginners to Mandarin
Intermediate learners who skipped pronunciation the first time
HSK test takers preparing for the speaking section
Travelers planning to visit China or Taiwan
Business professionals working with Chinese clients
Heritage speakers who want a clearer accent
Language enthusiasts and polyglots
Teachers seeking a clear pronunciation model
STILL NOT SURE?
Satisfaction guaranteed
If you don't feel more confident in your pronunciation within 30 days, you get a full refund. No questions asked.
STILL GOT QUESTIONS?
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you cover all Mandarin sounds and tones?
Yes. Foundations covers every initial, every final, and every tone in the pinyin chart, including the rare ones most beginner courses skip. The course also covers the neutral tone, tone pairs, and tone sandhi rules (including the special rules for 不 and 一).
What level of Chinese do I need before taking this course?
None. Foundations is built for absolute beginners. If you've already started Mandarin and feel your pronunciation never quite clicked, this course is for you too. Most intermediate learners discover gaps they didn't know they had.
How is Red Bamboo Foundations different from YouTube videos?
YouTube gives you isolated tips. Foundations gives you a structured curriculum. Every sound has its own lesson, every lesson builds on the last, and the Pre-Assessment and Post-Assessment let you measure exactly how much you've improved. You also get the community, the Anki deck, and ongoing updates that no single video can offer.
How long will the course take me to finish?
The course is 66 short lessons, totaling roughly 3 hours and 42 minutes of video. Most lessons are 2 to 5 minutes, so you can fit them into daily practice without committing to long study sessions. Many students finish in two to three weeks at 15 minutes a day, but you have lifetime access and can take as long as you need.
Will I be able to have conversations after this course?
Foundations focuses on pronunciation and tones, not vocabulary or grammar. By the end, you will have absorbed roughly 25 HSK1 words through tone pair drills and you will sound clearly when you say them. Real conversation comes next. Foundations gives you the base every conversational Mandarin course assumes you already have.
READY TO BEGIN?
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