Ear first, then mouth. Modules open by mastery, not by the calendar: it takes as long as it takes.
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 on tap, every reading playable and sayable.
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.