This review is of a bridging book set 朱尔多日记 (Zhū ěr’s Diary), which is ideal for middle-to-upper primary school readers. My daughter borrowed it recently from the library. Until that point, I really thought we’d heard of most of the better known early chapter booksets from mainland China, especially those written in diary format, but apparently not. 朱尔多日记 has been a welcomed discovery.
Key Information on 朱尔多日记 series
Series name: 朱尔多日记 (Zhu Er’s Diary)
Author: 黄宇 (Huang Yu)
Number of books in set: 6 (at least?)
Number of lines per page: 13
Number of pages per book: 133 pages
Total length of the book: 18,000 characters
Characters required by child to read it independently: 1500+
Pinyin: Yes
Bilingual: No
Available in Singapore NLB: Yes
Original language of publication: Chinese
Audio available: no
Suggested aged: 9 – 12
Synopsis of 朱尔多日记
Think of the American favorite Diary of a Wimpy Kid…… . what’s different in 朱尔多日记 is that the main protagonist, Zhu Er, is a schoolboy in Mainland China. Zhu Er is one mischievous kid, who brings readers on a journey filled with antics, humour, and daily musings in his partially-doodled diary. In fact some of the book covers in this set are so similar to that of the Chinese version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, that you’d be forgiven for confusing the two.
The concept is also somewhat similar to the infamous Mi Xiao Quan Diaries 米小圈 , in that the series comprises of several books for every level of school which Zhu Er goes through. Each book is filled with the joys, jokes and secrets of the schoolyard and his classmates. It’s funny and grotesque all in one. The books are more text intense than Mi Xiao Quan, but have pinyin above all characters.
Huang Yu, the author, is a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, with a psychology / counselling background. You’ll see bits of this shine through in the stories. The books have sold more than 6 million copies (which probably isn’t a big milestone for China market) and have won several awards. The same author has written over 100 other books (100 books!!!!!), most of which are built around positive mindset-building stories which children will relate to.
What my daughter likes about the series
Not to heavy and not too light: The books are specifically designed as an early reader / bridging , fairly approachable for a motivated mid-primary schooler to read independently (the pinyin helps)
Very relevant and comical for a primary schooler: Er Duo complains in a humourous way about all the things your child probably complains about….. spelling tests, school swimming classes, school dental clinic, finding a gift for Mother’s Day, being bullied, and of course homework and more homework.
Balance of text and graphics: enough colorful illustrations, full of ideas and fun
What a parent will like about the series
Fits Singapore context: Of course this is written in mainland China, but it covers aspects like failing an exam, or having a classroom of 30+ kids, which are common place in Singapore too, and also common reasons for tensions to build up.
Has a resilience building mindset: Zhu Er is a kid who seems to get his perspectives right – he loves learning (for the most part) and doesn’t let himself be defined by his grades (and tries to convince his mother of this too)
Available to borrow from Singapore NLB
Insides of 朱尔多日记
朱尔多日记 has considerably more text than Mi Xiao Quan diaries
Where to buy it from
We borrowed our books from the library. Buying it in Singapore I’ve only seen it listed at Maya Yuyi (honestly that’s the best place to buy books for upper primary age kids in Singapore… no one’s paying me to say this either! If you know a better place with dependable recommendations, please drop me a line).
If my child likes this, what are other similar books in Simplified Chinese?
Some books which my children really enjoyed at a similar reading level and are:
This post is a review of the Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen (阿尔发蛋AI练习笔) by iFlytek. This pen is unlike any other I have ever seen: it’s a smart digital pen for teaching a child how to WRITE Chinese characters using traditional pen and paper.
We were lucky enough to get our hands on an Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen in July 2022 soon after they were launched, and this is a review after a three-month test drive. I’m so excited to share this pen with you.
Did you know that physically writing out Chinese characters by hand has been proven to be a key tool in the acquisition of literacy in Chinese? Whilst it’s possible to learn to read without writing, by far the best way to learn any language (and especially a non-phonetic language) has been shown that nothing beats the old-fashioned way of pen and paper.
Handwriting is such an important tool – but also very tough for a child to figure out correct stroke order, and repetitive in execution. There are all sorts of gadgets and smart apps for learning to READ Chinese characters, but Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen is the first pen I’ve ever seen that helps you to WRITE Chinese characters perfectly and keeps a child engaged.
Several scientific studies have shows stronger brain activity after writing on paper than on a tablet or smartphone, and other studies show stronger memory recall when a concept is written down rather than simply listened to. The spatial and tactile information associated with writing by hand on physical paper has been shown by researchers as what likely leads to improved memory retention. There’s even new research specifically focused on writing characters (be it Chinese, Japanese, etc) showing that the sequential movement of fingers and hand to form hundreds of complex characters (as opposed to 26 alphabets) activates a neural activity that trains the brain in an array of advanced cognitive abilities needed for many aspects of life.
Key Features of the Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen
The Alpha Egg AI writing pen is a smart digital pen that resembles a conventional pen, and it writes on real paper. It is equipped with internal sensors to detect movement and pen position and connects to an app to give real-time feedback.
The pen really looks, feels, and writes like a normal pen (same size, weight, shape). Yet with the clever sensors it becomes a real-time writing guide, giving you feedback on how to write characters precisely and perfectly.
It has three key parts:
Writing practice with feedback: By using the pen with the accompanying workbooks (yes they’re also real paper books) and a phone/ipad, you get a closed-loop system for writing practice. The app captures the pen movements with real-time synchronisation on screen and gives a score to the user on how well the character has been written. It scores based on ten key areas of the writing (which are stroke order, number of strokes, size, position, thickness, frame structure, stroke angle, stroke direction, stroke length, and writing speed).
Videos: The app provides an in-built teaching assistant which can recognize the character being written and with the tap of the app can provide a short video with tips on how to write the character or in some instances, history of the character. Together, it creates a very comprehensive system and assistant for character writing, which is child-friendly and fun.
Personalised intervention: The “AI” function of the pen will actually recommend Chinese characters that need intensive training, based on past results, and allow the user to carry out personalized training to master the more troublesome characters, in a blank notebook (although you can actually use it to practice whatever characters you want).
Example of the scoring given from the app
Workbooks: Level 1 – basic pen movements
Workbooks: Level 2 – basic strokes and characters
Workbooks: Level 3 – advanced characters and blank books
Technical Specs
Model No: TYWP – W10
Charger: Micro USB Charging Port
Connectivity: Bluetooth (required)
Supports offline usage
Battery life: ~5 hours of continuous usage (it takes ~2 hours to be fully charged)
Weight: 17.6g
Dimensions: 160mm (length), 10mm (diameter
Pen tip: 0.5 mm
Ink colour: Black
User interface language: Simplified Chinese
The pen comes with 13 workbooks, ranging from introductory pre-character writing through to four levels of characters arranged from easier to advanced, based on writing difficulty.
Alpha Egg AI writing penAlpha Egg AI writing pen books
How the Alpha Egg AI writing pen works?
The Alpha Egg AI Pen works by pairing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Bluetooth technologies. When the pen lid is taken off the pen, it automatically activates Bluetooth, and inside the pen tip is an OCR sensor to identify the workbook being used and handwriting. It uses the square grid in the workbook with dot matrix recognition to determine pen tip position (1200 dpi high precision, so really pretty good). This is directly synchronized to the app, and then the actual handwriting is shown on the screen.
For help in setting up the pen, there is a helpful youtube about the AI Writing Pen with English sub titles. One tip would be to use a tablet with this pen, rather than a phone screen, as it’s bigger and will better resemble the paper size being used.
The Alpha Egg AI writing pen writes like a normal pen, and links to an app using Bluetooth
How our family is using the Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen
The problem
Nothing beats writing using real pen and paper. Period. Nevertheless writing characters on physical pen and paper has over the years been a struggle in our house. It’s not because the children aren’t interested or its time-consuming (although I’ve heard that both are common complaints). The real reason is that as I don’t know how to write the characters myself, I’m clueless. I seriously have NO idea, and cannot engage in it at all with the children. That’s why for revising week tingxie (Chinese spelling words) we rely heavily on the use of Skritter app. Skritter is a great digital tool for learning characters and practicing them through spaced recognition. It works for stroke order too, but given Skitter is still screen-based writing with a stylus (or finger) it doesn’t fully mimic actual character writing, nor bring with it the scientific benefits associated with analog-style pen and paper writing.
The solution
You can imagine how excited I was to discover the Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen. It does just what the packet says it can do …. Writes characters on real paper, and gives real time feedback! Another answer to my dreams!!
Literally, all three of my kids are using the pen, but differently. The pen can easily be shared across family members since it comes with a set of writing books that range from pre-character writing (squiggles and shapes) to advanced characters, with a step-by-step guide and tracing squares. You can even purchase additional books so each child has their own set. The only hitch in sharing across family members is that there is only one app account for the pen, so the AI recommendations on what to do for additional practice don’t work, however, we don’t use this feature.
The children really do want to complete an entire page of characters and collect stars, so it’s a positive feedback loop to improve in character writing. The characters can be selected and completed in any order, so it’s possible to choose characters that match a particular syllabus being studied. There are also blank square-paper books which pair with the pen too, for unguided practice.
The characters are rated in the app with a score out of 100
Pros of the Alpha Egg Chinese writing pen
Real time report on penmanship and handwriting, including feedback and areas for improvement (errors are very clearly explained)
Designed for both right-handed and left-handed users
Great matching videos so a child can get a refresher on how to write the character
The ink in the pen is refillable and the exercise books are replaceable
The pen and books can be used in offline mode as well
Parental Monitoring via app is available
It’s possible to use a lead pencil or an ink tip, depending on what your child is used to
The accompanying workbooks are well designed – going from practicing pen control and pre-writing skills, then basic practice of strokes, to basic characters, and finally more advanced aspects
Cons
Entire system and setup is in Chinese
The system relies on Bluetooth – if you avoid this for your child, then do avoid the pen too
The 阿尔发蛋AI练习笔 app requires a a local +86 Chinese mobile to first activate the app (although this can be avoided through certain resellers – including Sagesaurus in Singapore – who have preauthorized security codes and One Time Pin provided to you to avoid this inconvenience.
Is the Alpha Egg writing pen good?
Our family’s verdict is that the pen is excellent! This product is essentially a smart pen and paper, with a fancy connected technology that gives an incentive for children to use it to get in a habit of writing Chinese characters. The children feel the pen is comfortable to hold, and the app is simple enough to use and give them the information they are needing. The feel of the pen is like writing with a gel pen, rather than a ballpoint. Sometimes there can be a split-second lag between writing on the paper and seeing the image on screen, but that in itself is a good reason for the child to focus on the pen and paper, and only look at the app when they have finished writing a particular line of characters.
I’ m a self-confessed addict when it comes to using technology to help our family learn languages. That’s why our house is overflowing with gadgets like Luka Reading Robot, Habbi Habbi Reading Wands, Osmo, Youdao Dictionary Pens. I reckon we’ve seen and tried just about everything that’s out there tech-wise for learning Chinese, Spanish and English. Which is why I was blown away when I came across the Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen. It truly is something BRAND new to the market and has been executed well.
The Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen is an especially great aid for parents who don’t write Chinese, or who don’t have time to review their children’s writing. When I see pages of beautifully handwritten characters, I know that the app does its job well.
We give the writing pen a thumbs up! Note in the above picture, we’ve selected a specific character (四) without doing the prior characters. This is because this was on the tingxie list!
Where to buy?
In Singapore, Sagesaurus stocks the Alpha Egg AI Writing Pen. If buying through their website, you can get SGD$10 off Alpha Egg products using promo code lahlah10off. I know they also ship internationally. (and no, no affiliation or commissions are being collected from this blog post ….. just trying to bring you – the reader – great things and help small businesses).
Examples of what you can purchase are below…. the smart pen, writing books (4 different levels, with 13 books in total), and pen refills (either lead pencils or felt tip).
Enjoy the journey
I hope this review has helped you. Most important in the Chinese learning journey is that you create a family and schooling situation where the child loves the language and wants to learn it! I hope that you can achieve that in your family.
If you have reached the end of this, and still wanting to read some more, some other posts of mine which you may find relevant to help your child in learning Chinese:
The Science of The Power of the Earth 地球的力量科学绘本 is a book set for children who are nature lovers, geographers and mathematicians. The set contains ten beautifully written books published in Simplified Chinese which will put a child in awe about the wonders of this world. We read hundreds of books each year, and I just love it when we come across literary gems – this is certainly one.
Key Information on Power of the Earth series
Author/Illustrator: 加古里子 Satoshi Kako
Number of books in set: 10
Number of lines per page: 2 – 5
Number of pages per book: 25
Total length of the book: ~2300 characters
Characters required by child to read it independently: ~1200
Pinyin: no
Bilingual: no
Available in Singapore NLB: no
Recommended ages: 5 – 10 years
Original language of publication: Japanese
Audio available: Yes – through Luka Reading Robot
What the Power of the Earth books are about
This is a non-fiction book set for children, meticulously illustrated and researched, about various natural phenomena of the world (like rivers, rainbows, earthquakes, sunrises, etc). It’s not an encyclopedia – it’s really short story books, which poses rhetorical questions and gives plenty of facts about each subject, and food for thought. Questions like how much salt is there in the sea? How did mountains form in the ocean? Wy does the sun set colour differ on some days? And what are the names of different cloud shapes?
We really love books translated from Japanese in our house – there’s something about the pictures and the stories which are always so unique and endearing, generally with valuable lessons subtly contained. The author of this set. Satoshi Kako, is indeed a master storyteller (and has written many other wonderful books, including another favourite of ours called Mr Crow’s Bakery, which he wrote at the impressive age of 87 years old). He’s an amazing man, and author. Kako has a brilliant mind for making important concepts (like economic theory or geography) enthralling for kids, and is an equally talented illustrator. He originally worked as a chemist and chemical engineer, before turning to writing books to share his scientific passions with the next generation.
What my daughter likes about it:
The clever illustrations – in particular will appeal to a child who enjoys numbers, math and geography.
The questions it asks and answers – a child will feel like they’ve really learnt something they wanted to know
The text isn’t too overwhelming – yes this is non-fiction book, but it’s quite short concepts and easy to digest.
For a child, the books try to illustrate principles or ratios using objects and situations they would be familiar with, such as squashing a mattress against a wall to create a mountain, or the relative size of a watermelon and its seeds.
How mountains are formedHow rain drops are formed
What a parent or teacher would like about the set:
Very solid scientific fact and reasoning – in a matter-of-fact and down-to-earth manner, which probably gives answers to questions your kids have asked you before and you tried unsuccessfully to google for!
Words used are actually readable for a younger reader – the characters and choice of words are carefully chosen. You’ll be surprised how much your child can recognize and read on their own. The books is written in a way that a P2/P3 could self read, and a younger child would also understand.
Font size – the typesetting is a good size and clear, and works will with the Alpha Egg pen or Youdao Chinese dictionary pen if needed.
Encourages creativity – and appeals to my engineering brain with many of the concepts and corresponding illustrations
If you haven’t read anything from Satoshi Kako, you’re really missing out on a talented picture book writer. I highly recommend you check out this talented guy. He was born in 1926, survived through WW2, then graduated from the University of Tokyo with a major in applied chemistry and a doctorate in engineering. While working in chemical companies, he created fairy tales and puppet plays to explain his work to children. He was a pioneer of science books for children in Japan, and won numerous awards. The Power of the Earth books were translated from Japanese into Chinese by Guo Yu, a Chinese paleontologist and geosciences scholar.
Kako passed away at the age of 92, and The Power of the Earth series is the last set of books which he oversaw for translation into Chinese before passing away. His hope was for children to understand and love the earth.
Insides of the book
It was hard to pick which photo to include here – there are SO many stunning pages. Here are just a few.
The books remind me of Science Sketch Note type of seriesSO many fun facts about the universe!Simple and memorable drawings
Titles in 地球的力量科学绘本Power of the Earth Series
《高山》Tall Mountains
《河流》Rivers
《大海》Seas and Oceans
《雨 雪 雾 云朵》Rain, Snow, Fog, Clouds
《风》Wind
《地震》Earthquake
《火山》Volcano
《朝霞 晚霞 彩虹 极光》Sunrise, Sunset, Rainbow, Aurora
《世界各地》All Around the World
《地球》Earth
Where to find the series
Our set was bought several years back from My Story Treasury in Singapore. I checked, and they still sell it. It’s also selling on JD and Taobao.
Unfortunately, I haven’t seen it in the local library (although NLB do have several other books by this same author/illustrator).
What level is 地球的力量科学绘本 for?
The Power of the Earth would work for a curious and nature-loving child above 4 to be read by a parent, and even for a non-Chinese speaking family to be narrated as it has full audio recording through Luka. For a child to read the series independently, I feel about it’s about P2 equivalent in the Singapore school system.
If my child likes this series, what are other similar books in Simplified Chinese?
Books by the same author: Satoshi Kako has written several great books. Do you have any favourites to recommend to us? Our other favourite is Mr Crow’s Bakery.
Books at a similar level of Chinese reading: For other similar level Chinese books, listed by complexity of characters, please see my earlier post on Chinese bridging books. In particular, I would suggest 11 Cats or Frog and Toad.
Children’s picture books with a non-fiction element: We also enjoy Marching penguins set 企鹅机动队套书, which is originally Japanese too.
Children’s pictures books of Japanese origin: There are lots of great ones. Other books translated into Simplified Chinese which we have enjoyed a lot are 100 Storey House, and Tyrannosaurus series (and for slightly older children, Butt Detective 屁屁偵探)
This post is a review of iFlyTek Alpha Egg Reading Pen T10 – a handheld multi-language dictionary and translating pen. It can scan just about any printed text and give an explanation or translation. The Alpha Egg T10 is designed to be kid-friendly and allows the user to accurately and quickly translate from/to different languages (Chinese, English, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Spanish).
Previously on this blog I have reviewed the Alpha Egg Q3 and this T10 is the latest iFlyTek Alpha Egg model. It looks and feels quite different to its predecessors. In fact, it’s more similar in look and feel to the Youdao 3.0 pen, which I also reviewed several months back (but, oh, it’s so much better!).
The Alpha Egg T10 Dictionary pen was kindly lent to our family for month by a friend during the June school holidays. Very grateful for the opportunity to try it out. Regular readers would know that our family has a tonne of reading devices for teaching our three kids to read Chinese (since as parents we cannot even speak Chinese), and it was fun to see how the T10 compares to our other gadgets.
The Alpha Egg Dictionary Pen T10 is a highly advanced dictionary and translating pen, which comes with added built-in educational functions.
The primary use for such a pen is indeed its dictionary function, this clever pen will scan any Chinese written text (from an individual character to a full paragraph, including Hanyu Pinyin and Traditional Chinese), and then have options to:
read it out in Chinese
read it out in English (in a very fluent and sensible translation)
show the pinyin, radicals, and stroke order
provide the dictionary definition of individual words in the sentence/paragraph.
If you’ve used Google Translate previously, you’ll know that Google can indeed translate, but often not well enough to be certain 100% of the nitty gritty details. Using a dictionary pen like Alpha Egg is a much better way to do this. It not only uses the Oxford Chinese & English Dictionaries (9th Edition) to scan seamlessly and accurately, but it combines this with neural network learning for fluency of translations. The pen will recognise a range of bold and italic fonts, from newspapers, picture books, through to mobile tablets and devices.
As for the “extra educational functions” beyond just being a dictionary pen, the T10 can be used as a mini AI tutor. It’s not quite as cute as Luka Reading Robot, but it does have some nice features such as:
oral pronunciation practice and grading
listening comprehension tools
stroke order for all characters
20 key reference books
Key differences between Alpha Egg T10 and previous version (Alpha Egg Q3)
I would make the analogy that if these pens were handphones, it would be like comparing an iPhone Pro Max (the T10) with a Nokia brick (the Q3). Both options have very different user groups.
Physically, the T10 with its space-capsule-inspired design has a much bigger screen display (ie more fragile) and a slimmer design that accommodates a USB port. This means the T10 is more appropriate for older children/adults For an adult, the T10 is perhaps more comfortable to hold for longer period of time than the Q3, since the Q3 was specifically designed for small hands to grasp the sturdy crayola-like pen barrel. The T10 has a cooling aluminum alloy outer shell, and the Q3 is plastic-y.
Software-wise, T10 is well advanced. For basic function of translating, they’re both identical to each other. But the T10 has a whole host of extra functions. This is the biggest difference – that the T10 moves beyond basic dictionary functions and passive searching for words/translations, into active teaching (which you may or may not want in your pen!)
Language-wise, The T10 comes in two versions – the standard bilingual version is Chinese/English and the “Pro” version has an impressive 6 languages (Chinese/English/Japanese/Korean/Spanish/Russian). This is a great features for multilingual families and adult learners too. The previous Q3 only translates between Chinese and English.
Pricewise, there’s no comparison. One is 50% more than the other. Guess which!
Key features summarised in table below.
Comparison of key features of different iFlyTek Alpha Egg models
What is the use for a Chinese Dictionary Pen?
Honestly, a good dictionary pen is among one of the best resources that your family can have for learning Chinese -it’s great for both parent and child, and for non-Chinese and Chinese speakers. That’s why we have so many in our house already. Dictionary Pens are great because they provide translation, assistance for unknown words, and opportunities to unlock other independent learning opportunities through individual reading and writing.
If you are a parent still trying to use Google Translate on your phone for translating what Chinese characters are, or your child is struggling when reading Chinese passages to understand certain characters/phrases, then this is the gadget is totally for you! Yo
A dictionary pen is for exactly that…. looking up and translating words. Use cases can include:
To assist my children to read independently: when reading a book by themselves, the Dictionary Pen helps them to understand particular words or phrases they don’t know. Rather than needing me to madly look it up for them on Pleco, this pen lets the child do it themselves instantly and effortlessly. They simply need to scan the text using the pen and they get the pronunciation and explanation to appear (a great help for a busy parent, or a parent who doesn’t read the language). This really encourages the kids with their independent wider reading. It works great for reading books where the child knows 90 – 95% of the words, and the dictionary pen can fill in the unknown characters (for Chinese, it’s much harder to guess the missing character than in English, when a word can often be deciphered phonetically given the surrounding context).
For non-Chinese speaking adult to understand printed Chinese: the pen is a good tool for an anyone who doesn’t know the language, but needs to translate a document/word. Doing this with Google Translate is time-consuming, and still produces a sub optimal result. Dictionary pens such as iFlyTek Alpha Egg will scan instantly and give translations of whole paragraphs which actually do make sense.
Finding out more about a particular word / character: from definition, to related words and also stroke order, it’s possible with a few clicks to find out the etymology about a word of interest
How do scanning dictionary pens work?
If you’re reading this and trying to choose an e-dictionary which is Singapore MOE compliant, none of these scanning dictionary pens will fit the bill….. because they’re really just too smart. Their effortless and seamless ability to translate any written text is incomparable to any other e-dictionary.
They work using two main pieces of technology that sets them far and above the standard Chinese e-dictionaries because they contain:
Live neural networks for translation: this means they go beyond just a built-in dictionary, and base translations from millions of real-world examples which creates fluent and relevant translations
Optical Characters Recognition (OCR): some of you will be familiar with Pleco OCR or Google Photo translate. This gives the ability to scan printed text with high accuracy, and it’s built into the pen itself removing the need to type in text
Menu options on the Alpha Egg T10
The menu of the Alpha Egg T10 has many more options than the Alpha Egg Q3 (which has 3 menu options) and the Youdao 3.0 (which has 4 options). Downside is they’re only navigated in Chinese, so I’ll explain what we worked out here.
The ten functions to choose between are:
Word scan and translate: this is the main function – you can scan any text (single word or multiline) and it will read it out aloud and translate the text. If you click the words, on screen, you can explore further to get synonyms, definitions, stroke order, or save the word into your wordbank.
Language explanation: this contains a plethora of different reference books, dictionaries etc
Listening and speaking practice: this is actually for practicing English speaking primarily! You talk into the pen and get graded on your performance.
Composition correction: this is actually for English writing composition, a bit like grammar check on Ms Word. You can actually scan your own hand written composition and get real-time corrections.
Word Bank: you can add words/sentence in here for later review, and also download externally.
Dictation: Exercises are largely designed to align with Mainland China MOE syllabus.
Voice query: This is where you can ask the pen trivia question, or history etc, inlcuding meaning of idioms or ancient poems.
Voice translation: much like the word scan and translate, you can also do this with voice input
Glossary: Like a thesaurus.
Settings: lots if important things in here. Options to choose screen brightness, left or right handed settings, choice of language (English, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish), choice of male or female voice, choice of default dictionaries, downloading latest data etc.
The options under the setting menu of Alpha Egg Dictionary Pen T10
Pros of iFlyTek Alpha Egg Dictionary Pen T10
The really great features of the Alpha Egg pens are:
One-swipe, fast translation: recognises words and sentences automatically, at a speed of about 15 characters per second
User friendly design: clear voice (both male & female) that are easy to understand, with adjustable volume, comfortable to hold, multidirectional scanning for left or right handers, and very portable.
High quality translation: the translation is miles better than Google Translate, and noticeably better than Youao too (especially better for idioms or colloquialisms)
Many options on touch screen: provides Chinese audio, English audio, written English, and Pinyin translations, and also option for voice recording, and translating spoken voice inputs too
Works on nearly all written text less than 1.5cm wide: Support standard fonts in textbooks, children’s Chinese picture books, newspapers and magazines, restaurant menus, etc. It can read from screens/tablets if set on very bright. It will even read very neat handwriting(another incentive for a child to write neatly!).
Includes stroke order: the screen will illustrate stroke order
It can read Hanyu Pinyin and recognises Traditional Chinese characters also
Reading speed can be adjusted: when we first tried out this pen, my daughter’s comment was that is read too fast. Then, we realised there is a ‘slow down’ option, which is a thoughtful feature for a younger user to help them really understand the phrasing/intonation.
Oxford dictionary: contains 9th Edition Oxford dictionary, Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, and 20 key reference books, which can be used for looking up definitions of words and facts. Searching for any word explanation and translation is a cinch, either with a text scan or voice command.
Advanced AI voice command: it’s possible to ask the pen trivia questions (like “how many planets are in the solar system?”) and the pen will answer it, with a large library of facts from 20 reference books. This works in Chinese only.
Both horizontal and vertical Chinese text layouts
Cons of iFlyTek Alpha Egg Dictionary Pen T10
There are a few considerations when deciding to buy the T10 pen rather than other translating pen models:
More fragile than the Alpha Egg Q3: the screen is bigger and the barrel size thinner (it looks and feels much more like an oversized Youdao pen than the Alpha Egg Q3)
The operating system language is Chinese: Instructions and set up are fully in Chinese, as are all menus on the pen itself (it’s reasonably intuitive if you play around for a bit). In comparison, it’s now possible to get the Youdao pen with English instructions and English operating system.
It will read only printed text which is less than 1.5 cm wide: this rules out some popular children’s books with oversized fonts, including Sage 500 Books or Elephant & Piggie.
For the “Pro” version: it has 6 languages, but only translates between Chinese and the target language (English/Korean/Russian/Japanese/Spanish). In comparison, the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3.0 can translate between English-Spanish and Spanish-English, which can be more helpful for non-native Chinese learners.
Technical Specifications
Model: TYP-AIT10 Alpha Egg (by iFlyTek)
Battery: USB rechargeable; 8 hours of continuous use; charges in about 2 – 3 hours
Weight: 79g
Connectivity: 2.4gHz WiFi (supports offline use too)
Screen: 3.7-inch RGB LCD screen
Voice Mode: Real voice (British accent, Male & Female voices)
Orientation: Left & Right-handed
Languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English (for standard version). Additional languages of Spanish, Korean, Japanese and Russian (for pro version).
User interface: Mandarin
Scanning speed: 80 words per minute
How does iFlytek Alpha Egg T10 compare and other Chinese reading pens?
Alpha Egg T10 takes the excellent translating features of the Alpha Egg Q3, and splices it with the sleek elegance and larger screen of the Youdao. It feels more sci-fi than the Youdao by nature of its design, and you get a sense that you are holding serious technology in the palm of your hands.
In particular the Alpha Egg T10 improvements versus Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 are:
Screen size: The iFlytek Alpha Egg T10 screen is larger than all its predecessors and competitors that we’ve ever come across (including the Youdao 3.0).
Voice: The pen offers a variety of different voices and genders (sane as the Q3 also). In comparison, Youdao only has a female voice.
Translation accuracy: Alpha Egg T10 and Alpha Egg Q3 perform the same, and this level is slightly better (eg faster and more accurate) than Youdao. It’s hard for me to always know, as a non-Chinese speaker but this has been corroborated by Chinese speaking friends also. The Alpha Egg’s translations – especially specific things like idioms or name of Emperors, dynasties, or biblical texts etc etc – do make more sense than Youdao.
Pointing accuracy: Alpha Egg is more likely to get it right the first time, versus Youdao, when requires multiple attempts to scan the same character. T10 is less fiddly, and easier to swipe at any angle, from either hand.
Languages: the Alpha Egg T10 pro version can translate between Chinese and five languages, being English, Japanese, Korean, Russia and Spanish. In contrast, the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 only contains English, Chinese and Spanish.
The two biggest drawbacks of iFlytek Alpha Egg versus Youdao is that it doesn’t have any English operating system, and it is slightly larger to hold. I have written a more detailed head-to-head comparison between features of the iFlytek Alpha Egg and Youdao in a comparison post here.
Our friend who lent us their Alpha Egg T10 bought the pen in Singapore from Sagesaurus which is actually where our Alpha Egg Q3 came from. If buying through their website, you can get SGD$10 off for any of the Alpha Egg pens sold through their site (the Q3, the T10, and the T10 Pro) using promo code lahlah10off. I know they also ship internationally. [and no, no affiliation or commissions are being collected from this blog post ….. just trying to bring you the reader great things and help small businesses].
What would I buy?
Totally depends on budget and use. The pens are all very similar, so let price be your key guide. Then as a general rule, Alpha Egg translations are better/more accurate than Youdao, so if you can deal with the Chinese operating system, Alpha Egg is the better choice.
For a younger child wanting to read independently –> Alpha Egg Q3 (cheaper, easy to hold, less fragile, not many menu options). This is what we have.
For a non-Chinese speaking adult –> borrow whatever your child uses! Suggestion would be any Youdao International Version (has English operating system).
For an older child or adult with understanding of Chinese –> Alpha Egg T10 (larger screen, many more functions). This is what our friend lent us for this review.
For an older child or adult with understanding of Chinese interest in other languages (Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish) –> Alpha Egg T10 Pro (larger screen, many more functions and languages). This is what our friend lent us for this review.
For a child learning Chinese and Spanish –> Youdao Dictionary Pen 3.0 (contains both language). This is also what we have.
Enjoy the journey
I hope this review has help you. Most important in the Chinese learning journey is that you create a family and schooling situation where the child loves the language and wants to learn it! I hope that you can achieve that in your family. For us, it’s been a joyful experience.
If you have reached the end of this, and still wanting to read more, some other posts of mine which you may find relevant include:
Le Le Chinese – a system purposefully designed for learning how to read Chinese characters – have recently added Le Le Character Review Cards 樂樂字詞複習卡 (aka flash cards) to their product range. This review is focused on what these Le Le flash cards are, and how they can be used for raising children who both love reading and love Chinese.
Firstly, what is the Le Le Chinese Character Learning System?
Le Le Chinese Learning System really is the ultimate system to self-learn to read Chinese (either Simplified or Traditional scripts) without the need for phonics (zhuyin or pinyin), nor a Chinese-speaking teacher. For our family, it’s been essential, as we’re teaching the children Chinese, without any parents or grandparents who can speak or read the language. Le Le can also be effective for native speakers too, however, it’s especially great for non-native speakers due to the reading pen accessory.
I’ve written previously about how GREAT the Le Le Chinese Reading Pen and Character Learning System 樂樂文化 is, and why it’s well worth the investment (especially for those in a situation with no adults to teach literacy to the children). The books are a leveled reading system that teach >1000 characters through simple stories, utilizing lots of repetition and a touch of humour… and importantly NO pinyin. These short books are meticulously designed to be an interesting read despite the limited character range, with hand-drawn pictures which add to the charm. The real clincher for our family has been the matching pen which can read character-by-character when pointed at the books, along with whole sentences.
We have used Le Le System get to reading fluency with both of my elder children, and are now well on the way with my youngest too. We’ve recommended it to many who have found the same as us. My kids learnt so much vocabulary effortlessly through these little books.
There are 300 booklets in total: 100 essential books of 8 pages each, 100 intermediate books of 8 pages each, and 100 advanced books of 12 pages each. If you are familiar with the famous “Bob Books” for English literacy, the Le Le books are similar in size, shape and concept but for Chinese. For more information on the Le Le Chinese books and reading pen themselves, please see my previous post. Whilst the original post is now 2.5 years old, it’s still all so relevant.
Le Le readers with the Le Le audio pen
What are the Le Le Flashcards?
The catch phrases of Le Le is “Read more, study less” and also “Literacy through literature”, so the concept of flashcards isn’t an immediate fit when I think about Le Le’s philosophy. In fact, what stands out with Le Le is that children will learn to read without realizing they are learning. This is a stark contrast to other well-known reading systems which focus on introducing one character at a time, and may have somewhat stunted storylines because of it. However, once you see the Le Le Character Review cards, you’ll realise how they can be a good pair with the Le Le books, as they’re especially intended for review AFTER the story has been read.
The cards are designed such that one side has a character, and the opposite side has a simple phrase (consisting of 2 – 3 characters) encompassing that character. There are no pictures, English translation or phonics.
There are three different sets of cards, which accompany the vocabulary from the three sets of Le Le Levelled Readers. Within each set, there are about 12 ‘topics’ of cards, which align with the book themes. At the bottom of each card, there are some smaller characters as well as a number. This indicates which set and theme it belongs to. They can be directly matched and aligned to the index pages at the back of the individual Le Le books.
Le Le flash card topics match the themes of each of the book sets
In general, revising through flash cards works because they can allow a learner to interact with new information in a way that is very tangible, and easier to retain than other methods. It allows fast access to words, which can be recalled, and this then reinforces the neural connection in the brain. A very targeted set of words can be used with the cards, and easily repeated until the muscle memory sets in.
How do we use the Le Le Flashcards?
Finding good Chinese flashcards is generally not so easy. I wrote a previous post about different types of Chinese flashcards – from those with only characters, to those fancier ones that contain pictures, definitions, stroke orders, etc. We mainly use such flashcards in our house for the playing of games (think of snap, memory matching, treasure hunts, etc). We do not use flash cards for rote learning, although I do recognize that many families do have success this way too. It’s also important to remember that just because a child can read a flashcard, it doesn’t mean they can actually read.
The Le Le cards are unique from any other flashcards we use, because they can be integrated directly into our nightly book reading schedule without feeling like a chore, and are a more like a natural way to learn reading.
We have kept our Le Le Character Review cards in numerical order on the original keyrings they were designed to be attached to, and we bring them out each time we finish a Le Le book theme (eg animals, the body, school, etc). My daughters like to flip through them and read them aloud in sequence. I mark with a small post-it any of the cards which the child couldn’t recognize, which is an easier way than somehow trying to mark the Le Le readers themselves. Sometimes we even play a game using our Luka Reading Robot to see if child or machine can say the character/phrase faster.
This Review Card approach works for us, because we go through our Le Le books from 1 to 100 in order, and this allows us to easily pause and review words without repeating entire books at each stage (it’s especially great for my middle daughter who refuses to re-read any book after she’s read it once, even if she didn’t know all the vocabulary). It’s extra nice because the phrases on the reverse side of the cards align exactly with the books. This consolidates the learning, and lets us focus on the harder phrases, without feeling repetitive. I have met other parents who go through Le Le system thematically rather than numerically. The cards are designed to support this too.
Actually, when you think about the design of the Le Le book themselves, the pages especially in the beginning set are really like flash cards, with a simple noun or verb or short phrase. So using these cards is an extension of reading the books, but without the context of pictures to assist or prompt the child. So, it’s a true test of their character recognition.
The Le Le flashcards would also work great in a Leitner box approach. We don’t use them for this, as we use the MOE school cards for our Leitner box, and keep the Le Le flash cards squarely in the “reading for pleasure” category. My earlier post about how flashcards can be effective in learning Chinese outlines the Leitner box approach for those who want to know more on this (I realise many do, as it’s one of the highest Googled search phrases on my blog! It tells me there are a lot of REALLY organised an ambitious parents out there).
Example of the “Red / Essential” Le Le flash card sheets
Example of the “Yellow / Intermediate” Le Le flash card sheets
Example of the “Green / Advanced” Le Le flash card sheets
Pros of Le Le Flash Cards
Aligned with renowned Le Le syllabus: Directly matches with the Le Le Chinese learning system books
Simple to arrange and store: Can be kept on a key ring, so there is not a huge mess of 1000 flashcards to deal with and sort through
Large and clear font
No pinyin or English translations to distract the focus
Cons of Le Le Flash Cards
This looks like a long list …… actually the positives really do outweigh the negatives. I just wanted to explain a few things:
Cost: They’re expensive – as with anything from Le Le. If you’re constrained for budget, just get books themselves not the cards The cards a purposefully designed to supplement the books. If you don’t have the books, then the cards aren’t a good idea. They’re not designed to be used alone.
No reading pen: This is actually a positive in disguise. The Le Le flash cards are purposefully not readable with the Le Le audio pen, as this aligns with the Le Le philosophy. You read the books first using the pen with audio, and then these cards are for revision. The design team want the child to go back to the books if they are unsure with any characters. If the cards are readable, it will lose its meaning. [I get the intention here…. it’s about consolidating learning and not making children dependent on the audio pen with the cards, but if you do desperately want audio for the cards, do note the font is too big for an optical scanning pen, so Luka is the only option here]
Not pre-made: The come in perforated cardboard sheets which need to be torn off and turned into flashcards – I found the process of doing this therapeutic, but it did take up nearly a week of evenings to complete.
You could DIY if desperate: For a parent with a lot of time, you could actually just get the Le Le word list (available online to those who buy the system) and then enter them yourself into flashcard-making software. I’ve done this myself a few years ago, and we printed them out onto coloured paper. It was a HUGE effort, and honestly, the official Le Le cards are much more practically and robustly designed.
All printed information is in Chinese: it’s actually all pretty easy to navigate, even for a non-Chinese reader like myself. The Le Le team speak good English if you do need any assistance.
This is the message at the front page of the Le Le flash cards, explaining the philosophy on how they should be used
How helpful are flashcards in learning Chinese?
As Chinese is a pictorial language (well technically it’s combination of pictographs, pictophonetic/ phonosemantic, ideograms and other compounds) memorising many thousands of characters is ultimately what is needed to be a successful reader (sorry to say). With this context, Chinese flashcards can effectively be relevant for a much longer period than English flashcards would typically be used use of flashcards to learn English generally stops at kindergarten level, whereas Chinese flashcards are part of the book lists in Singapore schools for even Primary 1 and 2 students). However, for beginners, I don’t think rote learning of characters is an especially helpful approach at all.
My suggestion is that since I assume you’re human and likely only have limited time and budget (and assuming your child already has working basic spoken Chinese vocabulary), then focus first on extensive reading as the goal for literacy. Lots and lots of it. Find books that are age-appropriate and level-appropriate, including something like the Le Le readers themselves. The greatest learning will come from reading, and any flashcards can be a helpful check or tangible reinforcement. In the case of the Le Le Learning System, the job has already been done for you, with a collection of 300 short books from beginners (~ Kindergarten level) to advanced (~Primary 2 level), and matching flashcards.
Our honest view
Le Le Chinese Learning System books and pen are hands-down one of the best purchases we have EVER made in our Chinese learning journey … that’s a big call, if you’ve read my blog you’ll see we’ve tried a tonne of things. Going through the Le Le books (now for a third time, with my third child) has been a wonderful introduction to reading, and I’ve enjoyed it every time and learnt a huge amount myself too.
The Le Le Character Review cards have been a nice addition, but I would not say they’re a totally essential part of the suite. They nicely fill that ‘urge’ to want to use flashcards and be a responsible fully-involved parent on the bilingual learning journey. The cards are also really easy to throw into a handbag and use on-the-go whilst waiting in a queue or commuting. If you’re not fully sure, it’s likely best to buy just the first set of Character Review Cards (which contains by far the largest amount of flashcards), and then if you find a good rhythm of using them, consider getting the rest of the sets.
My other suggestion would be that if you are in any way thinking of making a thousand of your own DIY flashcards to match Le Le Reading System, just save the effort and buy these ready-made ones. They’re durable and nicely arranged into labeled sets on key rings, and it would be hard to do any better than what Le Le already has designed.
Where can you buy the Le Le Character Review cards?
The Le Le Character Review flash cards are available in Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. They can be bought with each level separately or bundled together with all three. Like all Le Le products, they only retail through the official Le Le Chinese website in Taiwan.
Shipping is not cheap, but for non-Chinese speaking parents, this system can enable children to exponentially learn new characters and it truly is like no other that we’ve seen or tried. For my blog readers, I have a special 5% off discount for Le Le ……. enter code “LAHLAHBANANA” at checkout. This is a really special offer from the team at Le Le, as they don’t usually offer any discounts or sales. I’m so delighted I can share this with you.
Also THERE IS A GIVEAWAY / COMPETITION for astute blog readers who have made it to the end!!!! If you are based in Singapore, this is open to you. Le Le Chinese is kindly sharing a set of books and flashcards for one lucky family! To enter, simply COMMENT below on this post about why Chinese Literacy is important to your family. Thanks to the team at Le Le Chinese, the winner will receive 1 x Essential books (100 books) 1 x Review cards for Essential level 1 x Audio pen
If the lucky winner already owns Le Le Essential, you can choose the Intermediate level or Advanced level of your choice. (books+matching level review card). Closing date for submissions is September 15th 2022.
Simple, uncluttered flash cards for effective learning
Other great resources for learning Chinese
If you have arrived at the end and found this helpful, maybe there are some other posts on my blog you might also enjoy. As a parent who doesn’t speak any Chinese, we’ve relied heavily on online tools, clever robots, and recommendations of others in our Chinese learning journey. Some of my earlier posts are:
In edu-tech, nothing stays still. This post is a round up of the new entrants and major upgrades that have happened in the Chinese Learning Apps for Kids space during first half of 2022.
The exciting part is that there are some small “mumtrepeneur” businesses, along with homegrown Singaporean startups, that are now rivalling the large mainland China technology houses. Apart from the local context and content, the great thing about apps that come out of Singapore is they have more English interface options, and are way easier to buy through app stores with a non-Chinese credit card.
New Chinese learning apps for preschool children
Prep Junior
Prep Junior is available in the App Store and Google Play
Prep Junior is a great Chinese learning app targeted at preschoolers. It’s been designed by a Singaporean start-up, and proudly supported by the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism. This app features interactive Chinese stories also with English translation and hanyu pinyin, making it suitable even for parents who do not speak Mandarin. A great thing about it is the content features Singapore’s local places, food and culture (like laksa, Gardens by the Bay, Changi Jewel, Singapore festivals).
Best ages: 4 – 6
Targeted Chinese level: basic fluency
Key uses: reading, listening, comprehensive input
Language: Simplified Chinese
Originatesfrom: Singapore
Maomi Stars
Maomi Stars is available in the App Store and Google Play
After several rounds of beta testing Maomi Stars officially launched their app this year, and it really became a hit in Taiwan, being the number one downloaded education app from the app store within weeks of launching in first quarter of 2022. Maomi Stars is a Chinese literacy app for children, equivalent to English kindergarten literacy apps like Starfall, ABC Mouse or Reading Eggs. It’s been meticulously researched, and tested on children, and contains wordlists from many popular graded readers like Sagebooks, Odonata and 四五快读, along with MOE school curriculums being added. Let your children meet the cute kitty cats and go on a journey together.
Best ages: 3 – 8
Targeted Chinese level: beginner to basic fluency
Key uses: vocabulary building, character recognition
Languages: Simplified Chinese & Traditional Chinese
Originates from: U.S.A
Galaxy Kids
Galaxy Kids Chinese is available in the App Store and Google Play
You may have of this highly popular English learning app for preschoolers called Galaxy Kids. In February 2022 they have launched an equivalent Chinese version. Through games, stories and songs, it aims to teach the first 1000 characters and basic conversation skills (yes, it makes use of the microphone feature to reocgnise you child’s pronunciation and correct for mistakes). A nice thing about this app too is they have partnered with Go East, which is an excellent online language school for children, in case you’re also looking for wonderful live 1-to-1 Chinese classes. The app is currently FREE to use for up to 3 activities per day.
Best ages: 4 – 6
Targeted Chinese level: beginner
Key uses: comprehensible input, character recognition
Language: Simplified Chinese
Originates from: Singapore
Gua Gua Long 瓜瓜龙宝妈宝爸群
瓜瓜龙 is available in the App Store and Google Play
The Gua Gua Long app has been made by the developers of Tiktok, but the similarities stop there. Bytedance launched this educational app in China two years ago, and entered Singapore earlier this year with vengeance (presumably in light of the crackdown in China against online tutoring companies). This app mainly consists of pre-made videos, from art classes to rhymes and book reading, which are divided into topical themes. Sign up and insturctions are fully in Chinese, so best for a literate parent.
Best ages: 4 – 8
Targeted Chinese level: intermediate fluency
Key uses: comprehensible input in Chinese, culture
Language: Simplified Chinese
Originates from: Mainland China
New Chinese Learning apps for primary school age kids
Dim Sum Warriors Club 点心侠
Dim SUm Warriors app is available through App Store and Google Play, but their Club Membership includes an extra online portal
Dim Sum Warriors Club is a somewhat unconventional approach for learning language through creativity, stories, and doodling helmed by a creative husband and wife duo. Dim Sum Warriors themselves have been around in various forms over the last decade – from graphic novels through to a musical – however the Club concept has just been revamped and launched, including have livestreams most days of the week and increased online content. A new feature is the livestream nightly 成语 Chinese Idiom Doodle Dates, which follow the Singapore MOE syllabus. With their new launch in 2022, there’s a special deal that if you’re buy The Dim Sum Warriors Club membership, mention that you were recommended by lahlahbanana and you will receive one print book free! Valid until September 30th 2022.
Best ages: 5 – 12
Targeted Chinese level: nascent to intermediate fluency
Key uses: comprehensible input, idioms, literacy
Language: Simplified Chinese
Originates from: Singapore/Taiwan
Gamistory
Gamistory is only available through Vitamin M web portal
In June 2022, the creatives from Vitamin M launched Gamistory which is an online portal where storytelling meets gamification to learn Chinese. The team delivers a new video (3 – 5 minutes) to watch each week, combined with interactive ‘choose your own’ adventure-type stories, and modules to complete. This app complements their highly popular ‘Vitamin Hour’ live classes, although it can also be bought with just the web portal content only. The content covers current affairs and popular culture around South East Asia, including sports, music, foods, attractions, and issues (such as famine, flooding, discrimination, etc), along with mysteries to solve. Free trial content of 1 module is available.
Best ages: 9 – 11
Targeted Chinese level: intermediate fluency
Key uses: reading, oral
Language: Simplified Chinese
Originates from: Singapore
VocabKing by Kids Start Now
VocabKing is only available through KIds Start Now web portal
Touted as Singapore’s first AI Chinese learning platform, VocabKing aims to help a child to revise their Chinese school work through gameplay. The main focus is reading Chinese passages and characters, and by answering questions kids can capture fire, water, and pets for a Pokemon-esque type battle. It’s based from the Singapore MOE syllabus, and parents can add own word to the child’s wordlist. In that sense, it’s a little bit like Skritter, but gamified. They have a 7 day free trial.
Best ages: 4 – 12
Targeted Chinese level: Singapore MOE syllabus
Key uses: vocabulary and character recognition
Language: Simplified Chinese
Originates from: Singapore
Wukong Literacy (悟空识字)
悟空识字 is available in App Store and Google Play Store
Wukong Literacy app has come leaps in bounds in 2022 and I’ve heard some parents say they prefer this to iHuman, which has long been the most highly regarded literacy app from mainland China. All the download and signup info is in Chinese… if you make it through that, you’ll love the content. I reviewed it a few years back, but it’s now had a huge facelift. The app makes use of the tabelt camera and microphone features in only ways which China would come up with, to create a lot of interactive learning games, including reading, writing and oral. They have a 7 day free trial.
Best ages: 8 – 12
Targeted Chinese level: intermediate fluency
Key uses: character recognition, literacy, sentence structure
Languages: Simplified Chinese
Originates from: Mainland China
What other technology and apps are great for children learning Chinese?
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on great apps, I’d love to hear from you. I am always keen to hear what works for other families. As an adult who speaks no Chinese, I’ve resorted to several smart technologies to enable my kids to become bilingual. Perhaps some of my earlier posts might also be of interest:
Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Club is an unconventional approach for learning language through creativity, stories, and doodling. During the pandemic last year, I had the opportunity to meet and interview the creator of Dim Sum Warriors 点心侠. Our family now has all their books, and we’ve been part of the Dim Sum Warriors Club for a year. This post is what we think about the concept.
What is the Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Club 点心侠 ?
The Dim Sum Warriors Club was officially launched in 2021. It has four main parts:
Bilingual Comic Jams: 45 minutes livestream, three Saturdays per month
成语 Chinese Idiom Doodle Dates: 15 minutes live sessions 4 nights per week
Web resources: 100+ draw-along videos, mini-posters, quizzes, vocabulary lists, home study guides
Dim Sum Warriors app: combining voiced comics, word recognition and vocabulary-building games, and read-aloud voice evaluation in Mandarin and English
They also have print books sold separately as the Little Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Tales (bilingual stories for young readers).
The system was created by a Singaporean husband-wife team Dr Woo Yen Yen (a tenured professor in education and film-maker) and Colin Goh (illustrator of two New York Times bestselling books and writer of films and a musical ), combining their years of professional expertise with their passion for bilingual parenting. More about their fascinating backgrounds and family in my interview with DIm Sum Warriors.
What we like?
Very suitable for language beginners, younger learners, and language enthusiasts alike: the app and the livestream content is fully bilingual, so it is very accessible for a parent or child in both Chinese and English. Even I, a monolingual parent, can appreciate the livestream sessions and learn something new in Chinese and English every time. I’d liken it to a Disney Pixar movie which appeals to different audiences at very different levels.
It’s real people interacting (and these people are incredible): it’s so rare to be able to interact with an author or cartoonist, let alone have access to them each week and put in live requests about what you want them to draw. This is what my kids look forward to the most. The very talented “Uncle Colin” can draw the most hilarious things in seconds.
The online sessions are short, sharp and ongoing: there’s no overload on screen time. In just 15 minutes, an idiom can be learnt, interacted with, and remembered. It’s possible to get consistent bilingual input and interaction throughout the week with this method.
Books form the basis of the app content: the app isn’t about rote learning literacy or watching cartoons. It’s really about reading real books, and interacting with them. The system bringing books to life and lets a learner engage/interact with the content. We actually bought hard copies of the books, so the screen time is a treat.
App language (and books) can be in English or Chinese: set the app as you please. Choice of Simplified or Traditional script, with Mandarin pronunciation. Bahasa Indonesia and Vietnamese are on the way as home languages in the app too.
Safe: the online sessions are conducted through the members-only page on the website, and only the Dim Sum Warrior team is visible on screen ….. no ability for children to have cameras on or voices shared nor recorded. The requests are sent through a moderated chat, run in English and Simplified Chinese. It’s also fairly intuitive for a child to login themselves and navigate.
Intentional content: There is great thought put into the curation of content. Many of the books focus on themes of resilience, inclusiveness, and diversity, whilst the idioms cover a lot of the Singapore MOE Primary syllabus. I feel I can trust the Dim Sum Warriors team to deliver content which meets both the emotional and educational needs of good responsible multilingual citizens. The team includes ex MOE teachers, Taiwan school teachers and university professors.
Family Sharing: One account is shared by all three kids, and the whole family can participate in the livestream Jams together. At times, we’ve even invited neighbours around to join in.
It’s a steal: Can you believe getting 20 live sessions each month (about 240 in a year), for an annual price of SGD199???
What we don’t like? (or watch outs)
The Dim Sum Warriors Club has been recently relaunched, after going through several stages of development. If you were one of the early adopters in 2020 to check out the app when it was offered free during COVID, I’d recommend you try it again, as you might be surprised how much it has improved / expanded
Nothing is perfect, so some watch outs for consideration:
It’s not fully immersive Chinese: when I first came across the Dim Sum Warriors Club, I was initially put off by the fact it is not fully immersive for Chinese. It actually mixes English and Chinese throughout. Since I didn’t understand the Chinese myself, I mistakenly didn’t realise how cleverly the English and Chinese dialogues are intertwined, through a pedagogical concept called ‘translanguaging’, which I explored further in my interview with the creators. It’s a very neat concept.
Features Singaporean English accents: certainly, the jury will be split on this aspect. The app in fact has a range of featured actors and accents, but you’ll notice the very familiar local flavour in the mix.
App can be a little draggy: sometimes downloading the stories takes a few minutes (not long, but longer than kids would like it to be).
App itself suited for younger kids: My preschooler likes the app best, whereas my elder kids get more into the livestreams and would rarely use the app.
Unique features of Dim Sum Warriors?
The whole concept is SO so unique ….. combining physical reading books, with an app that helps the child read the books, and then live interactive weekly sessions.
In particular, some other unique callouts of this unconventional approach to language acquisition are:
Great for food lovers: Combines Chinese language with all sorts of food creations
Helmed by an award-winning cartoonist: Uncle Colin with no doubt wow your kids when he doodles live
Translanguaging and fun play with language: this goes way beyond the textbook and into a world of literary fun and linguistics. There are puns, idioms, and etymology. It gets a bit geeky at times, but it doesn’t feel like learning.
Perfect for kids who really love to draw: in the Bilingual Comic Jams, the child can see step-by-step how to draw fun cartoons, and also submit wacky requests on what they want to learn about. The photos of what the kids achieve are quite impressive.
It’s Laugh-Out-Loud funny: the team really love to laugh, and learning is more fun that way!
Throughout the 45 minute livestream, the children can suggest ideas in line with the weekly theme, and Uncle Colin draws them and discusses relevant vocabularly.Translanguaging and language fun abounds in the Dim Sum Warriors Livestreams
How does Dim Sum Warriors work?
I’ll just share how we use it, as there will be plenty of permutations of families who use it differently.
Little Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Tales: We bought the physical printed books, although they’ re also available in digital format through the app (there is usually a new title every couple of months that come out on the app first). These books are also in the Singapore NLB library, and quite a few can be found in the international school libraries too. The books have short, funny skits about the Bao family, including titles like “Papa, I’m Still Not Sleepy“, “My Way is the Best” and “I’m Very Busy“. You’d be surprised at how kids connect with these short stories, even those who may not enjoy Chinese language. Sometimes mine ask to read the same story multiple times in a row.
The Dim Sum Warriors books are bilingual, with Chinese on one side, and English on the other.
Bilingual Comic Jams: these are livestreamed chat-and-draw along events held on Saturday mornings. We don’t join every weekend, but if we’re home at that time, we’d certainly put the TV on and have it going in the background with at least one child watching, and sometimes all six of us! The Jams are hosted bilingually, and build confidence in Chinese through creatively playing with the language and making connections across languages. Often around festival times (CNY, Mid Autumn, Halloween, Christmas etc) the Jam theme is aligned, and we’d make an extra effort to join and get to understand more specific vocabulary for the season. A favorite one we joined was the International Women’s Day event…. I was very glad for kids to learn this inclusive vocabulary in Mandarin, as it’s not a common feature in the Chinese materials they otherwise watch/read.
Chinese Idiom Doodle Dates: these are held weeknights at 8.30pm which is too late for us to join live, although we’ve made a handful of these during the school holidays. The rest of the time, we’ll watch the replays. The time we used this feature the most was actually whilst traveling….. it enabled us to keep up daily exposure to Chinese language throughout the long summer break.
Isn’t this an amazing picture done in 8 minutes? Such a fun way to learn Chinese idioms!
Dim Sum Warriors App: the app is filled with games that cover both Chinese and English, including activities to listen, read aloud, and even record kids’ own voices in both Chinese and English It has easy language-toggling and super kid-friendly navigation. It’s especially appealing to younger kids, giving plenty of aural and oral opportunities. If you’re concerned about a child’s pronunciation, this is one way to let them practice, as voice recognition can highlight mispronounced words and fluency levels whilst reading the books aloud.
How is it different from other Chinese apps for kids?
In short, I would say it’s peerless. It’s original. It’s really hard to compare.
This is neither an app, nor an online class. It’s a great mix of the two. Of course, it is possible to just buy the books, or just use the app. However, the whole Club package, including the livestreams is what makes it so compelling. It’s incomparable to any app.
In terms of concept, it’s perhaps a bit like Vitamin M, but with a literary/linguistics focus (Vitamin M which I reviewed previously is designed for orals, and comes at a much higher price point). It’s also a little like the GenieBook Chinese concept of blended online self-learning and livestreams, but without the textbook focus and much much more personal and creative.
** SPECIAL DEAL FOR READERS ** If you’re buying The Dim Sum Warriors Club membership , mention that you were recommended by lahlahbanana and you will receive one print book free! Valid until September 30th 2022.
What other technology and apps are great for children learning Chinese?
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on apps, I’d love to hear from you. I am always keen to hear what works for other families. As an adult who speaks no Chinese, I’ve resorted to several smart technologies to enable my kids to become bilingual. Perhaps some of my earlier posts might also be of interest:
Maomi Stars is a Chinese literacy app for children, perhaps an equivalent to the English kindergarten literacy apps like Starfall, ABC Mouse or Reading Eggs. It’s been meticulously researched, and tested on children, and offers several great advantages over other Chinese learning apps out there.
My kids have road-tested A LOT of Chinese learning apps, believe me. But there are only a handful that we have kept using consistently over the years and resubscribing to. Maomi Stars is one of these (…. iHuman, Skritter and Dim Sum Warriors are the others in case you’re wondering).
In short, the Maomi Stars app provides a gamified way for your child to systematically learn and review characters in a fun, welcoming and safe space.
What we like?
Very suitable for preschoolers and younger learners: the app is gamified learning, but age-appropriate for little ones. I’s not animation-on-steroids, and it’s very easy to navigate around the worlds. My youngest loved it at 2 years old when she first beta-tested Maomi Stars, and now she’s nearly 5 and still enjoys it.
Wordlists are relevant and customisable: there are various options for pre-made wordlists for a parent to select from, and the curriculum that are currently available are here. As my kids are part of the Maomi beta testers programme, we’ve had a sneak preview of other wordlists including from levelled readers that your child may already be learning from including Sagebooks, Odonata and Quickread (四五快读 ). The team are in the process of expanding curriculum to include Taiwan and Singapore MOE wordlists as well as creating one with words related to Pokemon. For educators, there is also an advanced option to add a custom word list, in which teachers can use to create their own class codes.
User interface can be in English or Chinese: set the app as you please
Language optionality: choice of Simplified or Traditional script, and Cantonese or Mandarin pronunciation, Zhuyin or Pinyin phonics. Brilliant!
Safe: completely free of ads or outside intrusions that can interrupt a child’s learning (have you ever noticed how many education apps have so many more ads that would would?). There’s also a setting for parents to set screen time limit.
Okay for complete beginners: as the app has speaking, writing, and English translations, and word lists are arranged by themes, it’s really possible to use this app for a complete beginner to learn vocab (eg numbers, nature, colours, people, etc)
Maomi Stars is excellent app for character recognitionDifferent worlds and rewards to collect
What we didn’t like? (or watch outs)
The Maomi Stars app has improved a lot since its soft launch in 2020. At that point, it was somewhat draggy / buggy. However, with continuous user feedback, I believe the Maomi team have really perfected the app to where it is today, which is a world class app. Really there are no real downsides, but a few watchouts:
Less interesting for older children: this isn’t a grudge, it’s a watch out as to why your child may not like the app. Primary-school age children who are into more complex games would find it simple, as it still feels like a learning game not a video game (an older child would probably like iHuman better). That said, if the option for doing their school tingxie (spelling) homework is between Maomi Stars or traditional pen and paper, I’m sure many lower primary students will choose the Maomi option too!
Pricing: it’s charged per month (can be good or bad), so not a lifetime app or three year option like some others.
It’s for supporting human teaching: While Maomi Stars does provide simple English definitions and images to try to convey meaning of the Chinese words, the images are not available for every word and are not quite as effective as iHuman/Wukong’s animated explainer videos. So while Maomi Stars is great for practicing and improving retention, it is best used alongside some human teaching.
Speaking game: My kids have a very standard Chinese Beijing accent, and don’t find the speaking game difficult. However, some younger kids (or those with different accents) may find the speaking game quite difficult to pass. I think the Maomi team still have some work to do to improve it – but the good news is that you can configure the difficulty level inside player settings and setting it to below 20% will allow kids to pass by saying anything!
Unique features of Maomi Stars?
Voice recognition feature: Incorporates speaking as well as writing/reading.
Zhuyin phonetic symbols collection: never seen this before (and it can be applied in both Mandarin and Cantonese).
Audio recorded using children’s voices: this makes it most appealing for little listeners.
Customisable wordlists: includes ability to change the curriculum so words are easier/harder depending on child (like, you know how some high-frequency words which are common for reading might be too hard for writing …. You can set the level to only ‘simple stokes’ and avoid those characters).
Multiple players: children can share the same account and be on different curriculums (great for families!).
Matching physical reading books: options include several well-known levelled readers which you may already have, or else there is also Maomi Mandarin Rhyme board book series, to reinforce learning on and offscreen.
It’s possible to have up to three children on the one Maomi account
How Maomi Stars works?
There are seven kitties that will guide the child through different themed worlds of words.
For each word, there is a writing, recognition and speaking component (same process for each word/character), and the child owns rewards for completing specific steps. These ‘rewards’ are treats for the kitties, such as food or things for their playroom after a certain number of words have been learnt.
Basic Maomi word collection is divided by themes
How is it different from other great Chinese literacy apps?
This post wouldn’t be Lah Lah Banana if it didn’t have a geeky comparison table, so here is a quick comparison of three great children’s app for Chinese literacy.
Comparison of Chinese literacy apps for children
Aside from Maomi, there are really only two other gamified learning apps for Chinese literacy / character learning which I would comfortably recommend. These are iHuman Chinese and Wukong Literacy. Both are indeed superb apps – and my older kids love them. These apps are based on vivid imagery and short animated videos too, which are helpful for the memory retention of characters. In many ways, this is better and beyond what Maomi offers. However, both of these have some limitations, which Maomi Stars has been purposefully designed to overcome:
iHuman and Wukong are not so suitable for younger children (or non-Chinese literate parents) – they are a bit harder to use, and have many options for navigation.
iHuman and Wukong are focused on Simplified Chinese / Mandarin – neither have Traditional Chinese options, or Zhuyin, or Cantonese. This is a key differentiator.
iHuman word lists do not match readily available physical reading books or graded readers.
iHuman and Wukong require a child to be very fluent in understanding spoken Chinese in order to get benefit from the apps, as the focus is on literacy, not vocabulary building per se.
Language selection option
What other technology and apps are great for children learning Chinese?
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on apps, I’d love to hear from you. I am always keen to hear what works for other families. As an adult who speaks no Chinese, I’ve resorted to several smart technologies to enable my kids to become bilingual. Perhaps some of my earlier posts might also be of interest:
The Zorori (怪杰佐罗力) stories are vivid, interesting, and hilarious, creating a genre to themselves – part mystery, part comedy, and I wouldn’t know whether to classify them as a novel, graphic novel or even picture book. They’re great Simplified Chinese books for a mid-to-upper primary child who still needs some visuals to stay interested in the reading.
Key Information on Zorori 怪杰佐罗力 series
Author: Yutaka Hara
Number of books in set: 57
Number of lines per page: 3 – 10 (very varied)
Number of pages per book: 85
Total length of the book: ¬10,000 characters
Characters required by child to read it independently: 1500+
Pinyin: Yes (partial)
Bilingual: No
Available in Singapore NLB: Yes (12 titles)
Original language of publication: Japanese
Audio available: yes, with Luka
What the Zorori plot is about
Zorori is an eccentric fox whose goal is to be the world’s number one mischief-maker, marry a beautiful princess and make his mother proud. He’s also a grand inventor and a little clumsy. Zoroi and his two bandits-in-training (who are twin boars) travel around and do pretty silly/bizarre things together.
They were first published in the 1980s, so I’m now meeting parents of primary schoolers who are saying they read these books as a child and LOVED them, so now are introducing them to their own children. These books were originally written in Japanese (much like many of our favourite Simplified Chinese sets) by author/illustrator Yutaka Hara. Hara is a storytelling master, having written many popular series such as “Little Ghost”, “Spinach Man”, and “The famous fried chicken primary school”. For some reason, Zorori series is by far the most well-known in Singapore. In Japan, Zorori is said to be more famous than Harry Potter.
There are 70 books written in Japanese in this set, of which 57 books have been translated into Simplified Chinese (and still increasing). It’s updated at a rate of about two books a year. We’ve read half of them. My daughter loves leafing through and rereading, which makes it a winning book in at our place. Given the sheer number of stories written, it’s a good indication that they’re not world-class literature, but they are certainly good sellers.
What my daughter likes about Zorori:
The humour
The graphics
The silliness
Age appropriate for a ten year old, and not-to-hard vocabulary for a P3/P4
Comics, puzzles, and inventions hidden everywhere in the book (which is why she always leafs through it again and again, always finding something new)
What a mother would like about the set:
The typesetting is a good size and clear
Text and graphics are well-matched, with more text than graphics, mainly in black-and-white, with an occasional splash of colour
Encourages independent reading and keeps my daughter entertained
Encourages creativity – and appeals to my engineering brain with some of the contraptions and their corresponding illustrations
There are a handful of idioms hidden in the mix
An element of filial piety entwined (ever so slightly) throughout the stories
Not all the text has pinyin (although it does have some, which is still a little niggle)
If needed, it is compatible with Luka Reading Robot
Also, note there are some bad jokes (including backside related ones) which aren’t perfectly clean, but not vulgar either.
Insides of the book
A picture tells 1000 words, and given that Zorori series has great pictures, I’ll just take the easy route and show you. These is the Zorori Simplified Chinese version, and I believe the Traditional Version and Japanese are each the same layout. Quite fun right?
Zorori books in Simplified ChineseVery technical drawings and contraptions, which I think would particularly appeal to boysEach Zoroli book has several pages which are full colour printedA splash of colourIt’s part picture book, and part graphic novelEvery book contains fun puzzles to solveNot all the text has pinyin, but most of it does
Where to find Zorori 怪杰佐罗力 series
The first 12 books in the series of Zorori in Simplified Chinese are available in the Singapore NLB.
All the books are readily available from several stores in Singapore and so easy to find that you won’t need any pointers from me. Simply google or walk into a good Chinese bookstore! If you don’t know any good bookstores, my earlier post lists my favourite ten stores Chinese children’s bookstores.
These are the main Zorori titles availability in the Singapore NLB collection
What level is it for?
It would work for any child above 5, given it has full audio recording through Luka, and also pinyin above most of the words. For a child to read the series independently, I feel about P3/P4 equivalent in the Singapore school system.
If my child likes Zorori, what are other similar books in Simplified Chinese?
Some books which my children really enjoyed at a similar reading level to Zoroli are:
Mandarin Companion Secret Garden 秘密花园 , and Sixty Year Dream 六十年的梦 among others (review here)
I would love to know what books you think are great at this same level! Please add comments below, or through my my Instagram or Facebook feeds. It’s only through meeting other wonderful parents virtually, that this shared language journey becomes a more valuable and fun one.
If you’re in Singapore, join the conversation with other like-minded parents at the FB Group Ni Hao Singapore Primary School learning, which I host along with a few other Singapore-based bloggers.
If you’re looking for a way to support your child’s oral and public speaking skills in Chinese, then Vitamin M might be the online platform for you. It’s an innovative new concept for learning Chinese targeted at primary school students. Vitamin M blends online modules with weekly live teaching sessions, with an aim to spark joy and motivation in speaking Mandarin.
This review shares what it’s been like for my daughter learning online with Vitamin M for the last five months.
What is Vitamin M?
Concept
The concept is simple – they have high-quality online interactive modules for kids to play, coupled with a weekly one-hour small group coaching session. The online content is a combination of short videos and choose-your-own-adventure-style games. Children use their Chinese skills to solve mysteries and go on a playful journey, which is broadly based on the Singapore MOE syllabus.
Content
All the content is created with a ‘story universe’ in mind, so there are familiar actors throughout the activities, videos, challenges (a bit like an ongoing soap drama). The weekly coaching sessions are conducted via Zoom, by fun loving and dramatic teachers, most of whom have serious acting backgrounds and street cred. The child can earn points by completing classes and exercises, and exchange these in an online store for plushies, erasers and cute stationery. A winner with the target tween audience!
Class structure
The weekly Vitamin Hours is held at set times each week, with 6 children maximum in a class via Zoom. The children will watch short videos and then share their views on the topics in a highly interactive format. The classes contain interesting games, you’ll need a second device, as most of the class involves quizzes which are facilitated using ClassPoint app concurrently throughout the hour. My daughter gets really competitive and enjoys these games. There’s also a writing component (fairly minima), which is done in a specially provided exercise book from Vitamin M.
Note: Vitamin M also offer 1-to-1 classes for Chinese oral exam practice, along with other self-guided online classes. I’ve reviewed their online PSLE Oral Exam Prep Course in a separate post.
Teachers
The teachers largely come from drama, radio and film backgrounds, and have a collective aim to bring the language to life. To give you an example of this, a few times when we have been eating out as a family at a hawker centre – you know the kind with the TVs on endless loops – and my daughter has suddenly announced “oh, that’s such-and-such from Vitamin M in that show”. She thinks it’s normal to see the actors pop up around the place.
An example video from the online platform activities in MayAn example quiz from the weekly Zoom VItamin Hour
Why we like it?
Vitamin M kindly offered a place to my daughter to join their classes for ten weeks when they were first launching their product. Despite my initial reluctance to let her join the live classes (I told them that our schedule was already packed and moreover weekends were no-class times for us), I was curious enough to check out their online content with my daughter. She fell in love almost instantly, and when Term 1 started for 2022, I ended up eating my words and we indeed joined their weekly classes. At the time of writing this review, we’ve used the service for about five months.
A few good reasons why it’s appealing to me and my daughter:
Singapore-based content: the stories, the scenery, the curriculum really resonates and helps to engage the child
Fun: This is not textbook, but real life, and useful applications (like learning about poverty in our neighboring countries, Down Syndrome, or the value of hard work, etc) in a light-hearted manner
Engaging: it’s not simply watching videos, but each of the modules requires active involvement from the child, and is a combination of quizzes, or uploading video clips, commenting on performances or video of other children in the class, etc.
Bite-sized content and practical content: for ongoing learning which appeals to a child’s interest and attention levels. Each week there is generally a short video to watch about a world events/issues (eg poverty, disability awareness, sports like tchoukball) and then an interactive dramatised ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ story video with familiar characters. Plenty of practical phrases to be picked up from this.
Excellent customer service: All Singapore-based, and you’ll be in whatsapp contact with them. It’s also possible to talk directly to the coach (in English or Chinese) after the weekly classes, and there is regular feedback and discussion online with the parents. They also host a few webinars for parents about managing exam stress, or oral exam tips, etc. Several times when my daughter hadn’t lodged her homework in time, the teachers have gently called to ask me where it’s at and encourage my daughter to complete the projects, which is also appreciated.
My daughter (in fact the whole family) really enjoyed the concept. During the school holidays, they take a break from regular scheduling and even host some online party hours (Mega Vitamin Hours) with great prizes to be won.
During the March school holidays my daughter was so keen not to miss the VItamin M party that she took her laptop to a playdate and logged in from her friend’s house. That’s not the only time we’ve have some drama over missing Vitamin M….. on the single weekend when we needed to miss a class (we went to Sentosa for a day), there were tears (but thankfully there was a recording we could watch to catch up).
The class includes some writing, and plenty of games, so typically my daughter would use ipad, laptop and writing book during the Vitamin Hour
Who is Vitamin M best suited for?
Vitamin M started in in 2021 and content is currently designed specifically for P4 students though they’re not strict about age criteria. We do know of P5 students who are currently enrolled in the program, as it’s a great way to brush up on spoken Chinese, and amazing way to get feedback for oral exams. It’s probably most relevant for P4 to P6 level at the moment, however there is a new program targeting lower primary students planned for launch in last quarter of 2022.
I think the Vitamin M model of online education is best suited for a child who needs a fun avenue for learning Chinese, and isn’t interested in cramming or rote-learning, but has a good sense for self-directed learning. It’s great for a child who who wants to use the language more actively outside of school and outside of a formal classroom. The child needs to be able to navigate through the online content (which is really enticing) and also attend the weekly online classes, and complete a few home activities (eg videoing themselves reading an oral passage and uploading it). For a child who is competent in using a computer, this is a great way to direct their energies.
Vitamin M is designed for students studying in Singapore, and whilst it would be appealing globally, it’s worth noting the timing for the weekly Vitamin Hours are set for Singapore timezones.
To find out more or book a free trial, check out the Vitamin M website.
Screenshot of listening comprehension from the Vitamin M platformScreenshot of listening comprehension from the Vitamin M platform
How does Vitamin M compare to other online Chinese classes and learning platforms?
I did a previous post comparing Vitamin M against 7 other online Chinese classes targeted at children which we’ve also tried. Honestly, if you are interested in Vitamin M, just try it out yourself. They usually will give a trial class or a demo, and even some trial access to their online content (which is how my daughter got interested in Vitamin M initially). Sometimes they even offer a free bubble tea with the trial 🙂
There are increasingly more services offering online learning options for Chinese which are specific to the Singapore curriculum. In terms of the blended learning concept between online content and live classes, the most similar education platforms to Vitamin M would be:
Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Learning System: targeted much more towards literacy and reading, but similar to Vitamin M in that it’s promoting the joy of the language. Vitamin M do it through drama, and Dim Sum Warriors do it through art and cartoon doodling. Both are a light-hearted and fun approach to using Mandarin. Much like Vitamin M, it has a very sound pedagogy and the team behind the concept are themselves authors, actors and academics specializing in Chinese language.
GenieBook Chinese: targeted more at grammar than live speaking when compared to Vitamin M, and GenieBook lacks the small group intimacy as the live classes are more like online lectures/presentations that interactive discussions. It’s more a mass market offering, and a much lower price point.
LingoAce: who offer a blended learning program for upper primary students, combining online materials with an actual in-person small group class. This is targeted at mastering oral, composition and comprehension components, and is obviously a much higher price point due to the in-person tuition.
