Pronunciation
- Why Can't I Understand Chinese After Years of Studying? (And Why They Still Can't Understand You)
Still can't understand Chinese after years of study? The bottleneck may not be vocabulary — it may be pronunciation. Learn why, and how to fix both directions.
- Why a Chinese Pronunciation Score Isn't Enough
A Chinese pronunciation score tells you how far off you are, not why. Here's why real Mandarin pronunciation feedback has to go from score to component to diagnosis.
- Mastering Chinese with the Shadowing Technique: The 4 Hidden Bottlenecks and How to Fix Them
The four hidden bottlenecks that make Chinese shadowing practice fail, and how to fix each one.
- It's Not B vs P, It's Puff vs No Puff: Aspiration in Mandarin
Mandarin's b/p, d/t, and g/k pairs aren't about voicing like they are in English — they're about a puff of air. Here's why that distinction trips up beginners, and how to actually hear it.
- The Four Sounds That Make Every Beginner Freeze Up: zh, ch, sh, r
Zh, ch, sh, and r trip up almost every English speaker learning Mandarin — here's what your tongue is actually supposed to be doing, and a quick way to check you're getting it right.
- The Tone 2 + Tone 3 Combination That Trips Up Every Beginner
Second tone followed by third tone is one of the trickiest tone pairs in Mandarin — here's what actually goes wrong and how to hear it.
- Why Your Mandarin 'B' Sounds Like a 'P' (And How to Fix It)
The b/p confusion is one of the most common Mandarin pronunciation mistakes for English speakers — here's why it happens and how to correct it.