
Intro to Mandarin Pronunciation & Pinyin
In this online course, which is a part of our more comprehensive Mandarin Pronunciation & Accent Masterclass, you'll learn everything you need to know about how to pronounce any sound in Mandarin!
Get this self-paced online course for just $49, or if you'd like a more comprehensive course, check out the Masterclass!
About this course
We'll start with the tones—which are often even more important than the consonants and vowels—and then move on to consonants and vowels, and finally two-syllable combinations. We'll guide you through, with audio examples provided by a native Mandarin speaker from Taiwan.
Whether you're a complete beginner, or an intermediate or advanced student who needs a review, or maybe you have some pronunciation issues you'd like to fix, this is the course for you.
You can go at your own pace—you get lifetime access to the content!
You'll get access to 4 video lessons and 6 audio lessons, plus supporting PDF and audio materials.
You'll get lifetime access to all 10 lessons on Chinese pronunciation.
Audio lessons focus on first teaching you to hear each sound, then teaching you how to produce it accurately. The audio lessons build up systematically, starting with the easiest sounds and then moving on to more difficult sounds. Extensive use of dictation and pronunciation drills ensure that you master both the listening and spoken aspects of pronunciation.
The video lessons in each unit prepare you for that unit's audio lessons by teaching things like Mandarin syllable structure, tongue placement for producing the correct sounds, tone change rules, etc.
This comprehensive approach will bring you to mastery of all of the sounds of Mandarin in as efficient a way as possible!
Most people learn by focusing on reading and writing—text focused learning that's more appropriate for native speakers because the already know how to speak!
Through guided imitation of a native speaker from Taiwan, you'll be able to master all the sounds of Mandarin, and their spelling in the pinyin romanization system!
The best way to learn pronunciation is by listening to and imitating good speech by native speakers. Use your ears and mouth to learn, not your eyes!
Unit 1: Tones
Video Lesson 1: Tones
Audio Lesson 1: Tones
Unit 2: Finals and Initials
Video Lesson 2: The Finals + Syllable Structure
Video Lesson 3: The Initials + Syllable Structure
Audio Lesson 2: Consonants & Vowels I
Audio Lesson 3: Consonants & Vowels II
Audio Lesson 4: Consonants & Vowels III
Audio Lesson 5: Consonants & Vowels IV
Unit 3: Multi-syllable words
Video Lesson 4: Tone Change Rules
Video Lesson 5: Two-tone Combinations
Audio Lesson 6: Two Syllable Words
This course is designed with two groups of people in mind:
1. Complete beginners who want to get started off on the right foot, and
2. Intermediate and advanced learners who are still struggling with specific sounds in Mandarin
This course does not require you to own or use any of our other products—it's entirely self-contained!

Before co-founding Outlier, John studied Linguistics and Paleography in the Graduate Institute of Chinese at National Taiwan Normal University. He co-founded and later ran the Taipei Classical Chinese Reading Group, a weekly reading group consisting mostly of graduate Sinology students from western universities. He also taught classical Chinese to members of the group who had no previous instruction in the language. His coursework and research focused on excavated Warring States bamboo texts, historical Chinese character morphology, and the Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字 and its commentaries and criticism.
Self-paced online course for just $49!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Rated 4.8/5 by 1000's of Chinese learners

Copyright © 2026 Outlier Linguistics - All Rights Reserved