Ear first, then mouth. Modules open by mastery, not by the calendar: it takes as long as it takes.
Learning a new alphabet? Base Camp: read 21 scripts from the names of countries you already know.
1 · Mandarin tones
Identify the tone of a word said by different voices at different speeds. Eight sessions over two weeks was enough in Wang et al.; your pace is yours.
2 · Korean stops
달 · 딸 · 탈: lenis, tense, aspirated. The cue is mostly pitch on the vowel, so this opens once your ear is tuned to pitch.
3 · Say it, see it
Hear a native voice, say it back, and see your pitch line over theirs. A transcription round-trip tells you whether a listener would have heard the right word.
4 · Cognate Bridge
367 Sino-Xenic compounds: simplified target, traditional as the bridge to the kanji you know, pinyin, hangul, kana, Vietnamese, every reading playable and sayable.
5 · Family Bridges
One English meaning, the related words across a language family. Pick a family.
Stepping stonesLanguages you already have. The tutor draws on them, and the Bridge shows their readings on tap as memory hooks. Mark the ones you are still studying as “studying”: their readings stay visible.
reference
1 ¯ high, flat
妈 mā
2 ˊ rising
麻 má
3 ˇ low, dipping
马 mǎ
4 ˋ falling
骂 mà
3-3 is said 2-3; 一 and 不 shift too. Either answer counts.