In Mandarin Chinese, tones are essential to distinguish the meaning of words. There are four primary tones and one neutral tone. To make it easier for non-native speakers to remember and practice these tones, a colour-coded method can be employed. Let's break down each tone and its associated colour:

First Tone - Blue:

• Pitch: Very high and level.
• Visualization: Imagine the clear blue sky, which is high and unchanging. The first tone is like the constant, unwavering blue sky.

Second Tone - Yellow:

• Pitch: Starts low and rises.
• Visualization: Think of a beautiful sunrise in the morning, starting from the horizon and gradually rising. The second tone mimics this upward movement.

Third Tone - Green:

• Pitch: Starts mid, dips down, and then rises.
• Visualization: Picture a checkmark (√). The third tone is similar to the shape of a tick (√), starting from the middle, dipping down, and then coming back up.

Fourth Tone - Red:

• Pitch: Sharp and falling.
• Visualization: Imagine something intense and powerful, like an angry red face. The fourth tone is abrupt and falls sharply, just like an emphatic exclamation.

Neutral Tone - Gray:

• Pitch: Light and short.
• Visualization: The neutral tone doesn't follow the same pitch patterns as the other four tones. Think of it as a neutral, unobtrusive grey colour, not drawing much attention but still there.

Using the Color-Coded Pinyin Method:

When practising your Chinese pronunciation, use these colour associations to help you remember and visualize the tones. For example, when you encounter a word with the first tone, visualise the word as blue like the sky and try to maintain a high and level pitch. Similarly, associate the other colours and visualizations with their respective tones.

Remember, practice is key to mastering Chinese tones. Over time, you'll become more comfortable with using this colour-coded method to remember and reproduce the correct pitches for each tone.

Let's take the syllable "ma" as an example. Listen to the audio and apply the colour-coded Pinyin method to practise the pronunciation of each tone