About all courses & offerings

Are your offerings only suitable for American-Born Chinese (ABC) & American-Born Taiwanese (ABT) individuals?

No. Although the inspiration behind building Real You Mandarin came from our own struggles as ABCs/ABTs and this group will always be the original intended audience for the course offerings, as we started to reach more and more Mandarin learners online, we realized that Real You Mandarin could help all advanced Mandarin learners find their voice. As long as your Mandarin skill level is sufficient to keep up with the free preview lessons of either Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression or Real You Mandarin: Beginnings, and you are interested in the topics outlined in the syllabus of either course (See Courses page for more details), these courses are suitable for you regardless of your cultural background. Similarly, if you're able to keep up with the podcast episodes of "Real You Mandarin: The Podcast" and find the format of the free transcript from Episode 1 to be helpful, you can deepen your learning through the Transcript Membership.

Are all offerings a one-time fee?

Both our courses, Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression and Real You Mandarin: Beginnings are offered as a one-time purchase. With your one-time payment you get instant access to the respective course purchased. There are no recurring payments after your initial purchase.

With the "Real You Mandarin: The Podcast" Transcript Membership, you have the option to join on a monthly basis, with a recurring lower payment of $5/month, or join with lifetime access for a one-time payment of $100. If you join on a monthly basis, you can cancel at anytime with advance notice. Please review the Terms and Conditions page for more details.

Are there refunds?

No. As all our offerings are digital products that give you instant access to all available content upon purchase, all sales are final and no refunds will be given.

Do I get access to other offerings from Real You Mandarin for free with my purchase?

No. Your purchase entitles you access only to the exact courses/offerings outlined on the checkout page. Any future courses or paid offerings from Real You Mandarin would require additional purchase.

Do the courses include live lessons or practice?

No. The format of both Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression and Real You Mandarin: Beginnings is self-paced, featuring on-demand videos. You are encouraged to practice speaking on your own using echoing & shadowing techniques leveraging the course videos. However, upon course purchase, you also get access to the free students-only Discord community where you have the opportunity to initiate practice opportunities with other students in voice channels and/or in real life, though these efforts are self-directed by the students and not orchestrated officially by Real You Mandarin.

If I purchase one of your courses, can I connect with other students?

Yes. As mentioned above, if you purchase either Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression or Real You Mandarin: Beginnings, you get access to the free students-only Discord community where you have the opportunity to connect with other students. There are regional channels created for students to find other students in their local area should students want to coordinate meet ups.

About "Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression"

Do you offer free trials?

You can preview a free lesson here before purchase. This lesson is the exact same format as all other lessons within the course, so you should be able to get a solid understanding of whether or not the skill level and learning format is suitable for your needs. If it is a good fit, you are able to purchase the course directly from that free lesson portal.

What exactly do I get in the course?

The course consists of 5 different modules: 1. Expressing Your Feelings, 2. Interpersonal Relationships & Dynamics, 3. Fertility Journey & Parenting, 4. Caring For Aging Parents, and 5. Self-Growth Journey. Each module consists of anywhere between 5-10 video lessons on average, transcripts provided both as text on the lesson page and as downloadable PDFs, and pre-built digital flashcards of all mentioned vocabulary. Video subtitles, transcripts, and flashcards are all provided in Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Pinyin, and English. You are encouraged to practice echoing & shadowing each video to improve your speaking ability. Each digital flashcard (provided through Anki) is pre-built with the highlighted vocabulary word/phrase in your choice of Traditional Chinese or Simplified Chinese, each with Pinyin pronunciation, a sample sentence using the vocabulary, and audio pronunciation.

The course is releasing on a rolling basis, with Module 1: Expressing Your Feelings released initially in May 2025. The rest of the modules will be released throughout the rest of 2025, roughly on a monthly basis, with exact release dates to be confirmed and announced directly by Real You Mandarin. If you pre-order the full course prior to its full release, each new module will unlock automatically for you to access upon its release without any additional steps taken from your side. By pre-ordering, you will be able to access the full course at a steep discount compared to its regular price of $199 upon full release.

Try out the free preview lesson and read the Course Syllabus to see details of the lessons covered within each module.

How is this course different from "Real You Mandarin: Beginnings"?

The course's 5 modules: Expressing Your Feelings, Interpersonal Relationships & Dynamics, Fertility Journey & Parenting, Caring For Aging Parents, and Self-Growth Journey, were the most highly-requested topics as surveyed from existing Real You Mandarin: Beginnings students and from prospective students' feedback over the past year. These topics are one level deeper than in Real You Mandarin: Beginnings, focused on navigating important life stages we face as multifaceted adults. Read the full details of what lessons are covered in each module in the Course Syllabus.

Further, in response to the feedback we received from Real You Mandarin: Beginnings, Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression is offered in both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, an important feature we recognize is critical to many Mandarin speakers' learning journeys. For more details on the differences between these courses and why one might be a better fit for you than the other, please reference our Courses page.

Is the full course out yet?

As of May 2025, Module 1: Expressing Your Feelings is the first of five modules to be live. The rest of the modules will be released throughout the rest of 2025, roughly on a monthly basis, with exact release dates to be confirmed/announced. If you pre-order the full course prior to its full release, each new module will unlock automatically for you to access upon its release without any additional steps taken from your side. By pre-ordering the full course prior to its full release, you will be able to access it at a steep discount compared to its regular price of $199 upon full release. You can review details of the full course in the Course Syllabus.

Can I purchase individual modules?

Yes. You may purchase modules individually, as a bundle of two of your preferred modules, or combined as the full course. You will enjoy a lower per-module price if you purchase either the two-module "Saver Bundle" or the full course, but we wanted to offer the flexibility for students to purchase only the modules that fit their specific needs, if they so choose.

As of May 2025, only Module 1: Expressing Your Feelings is available for purchase individually. However, you may choose to upgrade upon checkout to the "Saver Bundle," which allows you to pre-order a second module of your choice. See below under "I purchased the 'Saver Bundle.' How do I access my second module of choice?" for more details.

I purchased the "Saver Bundle." How do I access my second module of choice?

You purchased the "Saver Bundle" as an add-on to your individual module purchase, for example of "Module 1: Expressing Your Feelings." Upon payment completion, you will receive two (2) welcome emails/receipts - one for "Module 1: Expressing Your Feelings" with access details, and one for "Saver Bundle," instructing you to forward the "Saver Bundle" welcome email/receipt to support@realyoumandarin.com telling us which second module you want access to. You must be manually added by Real You Mandarin to the second module, so you must send this email to us to get access to your second module.

Depending on when you purchase the "Saver Bundle," your second module may or may not be released yet. Real You Mandarin will manually add you to the second module's course portal, so as soon as that module is live, the content will automatically unlock and you will have access to it without any additional steps taken.

About "Real You Mandarin: The Podcast"

Where can I listen and watch?

You can watch video episodes on both YouTube and Spotify, or listen to audio episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, amongst other smaller podcast distribution networks. We recommend you watch the video episodes as vocabulary is shown on screen as it comes up in the conversation, displaying both Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese, Pinyin, and the English definition. We also post 60-90 sec clips on our Instagram and TikTok.

How do I access the transcripts?

You can join our Podcast Transcript Membership for $5/month or get lifetime access with a one-time payment of $100. If you'd like to see the format of these transcripts to make sure it'll be a helpful resource to you, download the entire transcript from episode 1 for free here. We trust you'll see the value in the content and the amount of effort it takes to create such transcripts and hope you'll be encouraged to join the Transcript Membership as a result.

About "Real You Mandarin: Beginnings"

Do you offer free trials?

You can preview a free lesson here before purchase. This lesson is the exact same format as all other lessons within the course, so you should be able to get a solid understanding of whether or not the skill level and learning format is suitable for your needs. If it is a good fit, you are able to purchase the course directly from that free lesson portal.

What exactly do I get in the course?

Instant access to the 15 modules of content that include 60+ video lessons and 1600+ digital flashcards. Read the Course Syllabus to see the topics covered within each module. Video lessons include transcripts of each line in Traditional Chinese, with Pinyin pronunciations (including tones) and English translations. You are encouraged to practice echoing & shadowing each video to improve your speaking ability. Each digital flashcard (provided through Anki) is pre-built with the highlighted vocabulary word/phrase in Traditional Chinese, Pinyin pronunciation, a sample sentence using the vocabulary, and audio pronunciation.

Is the course offered in Simplified Chinese?

No. The course is only offered in Traditional Chinese, but is phoneticized using Pinyin throughout, and all of the content is translated into English as well. As this was our first course, we wanted to get the content out as soon as it was available, so we pushed ahead with Traditional Chinese as both creators are Taiwanese/Taiwanese-American and thereby use Traditional Chinese by default. If you are interested in a course with Simplified Chinese, please consider our newest course, Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression and our Podcast Transcript Membership of "Real You Mandarin: The Podcast," both of which include content in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese, on top of Pinyin, English, and inclusion of highlighted vocab.

Can I purchase individual modules?

No, this course is only offered in its entirety. If you are interested in purchasing individual modules, please consider Real You Mandarin: Self-Expression, as that course is available for purchase on a per-module basis if so desired.

I bought the "Real You Mandarin" course on or before February 2025. Is this the same thing as "Real You Mandarin: Beginnings"?

Yes. We changed the name of the original "Real You Mandarin" course launched in July 2024 to "Real You Mandarin: Beginnings" in February 2025 in order to give more flexibility to the Real You Mandarin brand to create more offerings under the same umbrella without causing further confusion. We apologize for any confusion this may cause existing students.