There is a funny story behind the Galaxy Kids Chinese app and how I came to know about it. I was chatting to one of my mummy friends in Australia about the apps we were using for teaching our children Mandarin Chinese. I was recommending the iHuman Chinese app (Which we loved. And still love!!), she said she had been trying out the Galaxy Kids Chinese App with her boys and they were having a ball with it. This was in 2022.
Since then, the Galaxy Kids Chinese app has made some serious upgrades to the app, and is a serious contender as one of the more fun and educational Mandarin Chinese apps for little Mandarin Chinese learners. In this post, I will discuss the top features of the Galaxy Kids Chinese app and what makes it stand out from the other Chinese educational apps currently in the market.
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We were approached and generously given free access to the Galaxy Kids Chinese by the creators to review the app. The review is our true and honest opinion of the app after a year of using it.
About the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
The main characters in the Galaxy Kids Chinese app are Nana, Maxi, Noodle Monster and Big Blue. There is also a professor who teaches the children the key vocabulary word of that lesson. To be truthful, when I first saw the characters, I thought they looked odd and reminded me of Teletubbies! But hey, Teletubbies were and still is one of the most popular kids’ show ever. And my kids did not share similar sentiments. The girls especially loved the cute pink one with the bow in her “hair” Nana.
The characters speak predominantly in English while teaching and introducing the key Chinese vocabulary word. Hence, this app will be ideal for children whose first language is English and is picking up Chinese as an additional language. It actually reminds me very much of the Kids Learn Mandarin app LINK
New Chinese characters are always accompanied by pinyin on the screen.
Topics covered in the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
There are 24 topics in the Galaxy Kids Chinese App, and within each topic, there are 4 lessons, targeting 4 different Chinese key vocabulary words. The vocabulary covered in the Galaxy Kids Chinese App is YCT based. LINK
- 问候语 Greetings
- 爸爸妈妈 Dad & Mom
- 动物园 Zoo
- 数字 Numbers
- Maxi的生日 Maxi’s Birthday
- 水果 1 Fruits 1
- 不用客气 You’re Welcome
- 颜色 2 Colours 2
- Maxi的家 Maxi’s House
- Maxi的家具 Maxi’s Furniture
- 数字 2 Numbers 2
- 卧室 Bedroom
- 感觉 2 Feelings 2
- 形状 Shapes
- 感触 Senses
- 玩具 Toys
- 水果 2 Fruits 2
- 颜色 3 Colours 3
- 身体 Body
- 颜色 1 Colours 1
- 动作 Actions
- 脸 Face
- 书包 Book bag
- 水果 3 Fruits 3
For example, in the Zoo theme, there are four lessons
- 长颈鹿 Giraffe
- 狮子 Lion
- 大象 Elephant
- 猴子 Monkey
In each lesson, children will learn the key vocabulary through the following elements
- Introductory video – Children will watch a quick and simple video introducing the key vocabulary.
- Games – there are always 5 different learning games, and it differs according to the lesson. In general, the games will be fun and straightforward which require no skills, such as puzzles, flashcard matching, Mario Bros type action game. The key vocabulary word is repeated throughout the games.
- Speech lab – at the end, there is a speech recognition test to gauge your child’s pronunciation.
In total, there are 100+ Chinese vocabulary words that your child will be actively taught within the app.
The video below gives you a quick view of the Elephant 大象 lesson.
Design of the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
One word. Cute. The app is brightly coloured, simple and just cute! It’s a candy coloured world in Galaxy Kids which will really appeal to young children.
As you can see from the screenshot above, there are not many tabs on the main page. There’s the home screen, chat buddy, speech lab and playground. I will go into detail for the latter 3 about what they are.
Chat Buddy – This is where you can have an AI-powered chat with Nana. Press the “speech” button and chat away! Do note that this is fairly new technology so it does take a few moments to process your speech. The responses are astonishingly relevant and realistic though.
On the bottom right, you can click on the 3 lines to activate topics in the Mini Chat room. At the time of writing this blog, there were 16 topics of discussion that aligns with the thematic lessons.
Speech Lab – As the name implies, this is where you can learn how to say all the Chinese vocabulary words in the app! In the Words Library section ranging from seafood to pets to greetings… The target vocabulary word is presented with the pinyin, and the pronunciation. When you click on the microphone button, you can test how accurate you sound. “Just like a native speaker!”
If you just wanted to go with the flow, press the play button to get a random selection of Chinese words to practise your speech.
This video below gives you a brief rundown of the main features of the Speech Lab.
Playground – currently there are only 2 sections in this playground section of the app: Word Walk About and Cinema.
- Word Walk About – you can choose one of the characters and race to answer 5 questions correctly to win the game.
- Cinema is where you can watch short and fun videos of the songs within the app. Again, the songs are aligned to the themes and are simple and catchy tunes. Very Mandopop. This appealed to my daughters more than my son.
Star tokens – As you child advances in the app, they can collect star tokens which can be exchanged for interactive toys for the characters. The radio plays music, and the car zooms around the playroom.
Chinese Language Options
Simplified Chinese. pinyin is included in each introductory lesson.
Galaxy Kids Chinese App Language Options
There’s a whopping 12 languages to choose from!!
- English
- Traditional Chinese
- Hindu/Tamil?
- French
- Deutsche
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Spanish
- Thai
- Vietnamese
Pronunciation
I find no fault with the pronunciation so far. Even the AI powered speech was pretty accurate.
Does the the Galaxy Kids Chinese App allow for multiple users?
Yes. You can set up to 3 child profiles.
Does the the Galaxy Kids Chinese App allow for multiple devices?
Yes. So far, I have installed them on my iphone and ipad, and the progress is synced across the devices.
Is there a free trial for the Galaxy Kids Chinese App?
Yes. You can download the Galaxy Kids Chinese app and try it for free, with no obligations. The Galaxy Kids Chinese App is very generous and you can try out 3 lessons per day for free. You’ll have to pay for a subscription to unlock for unlimited use.
Please scroll down to download details for more information about pricing and app store link.
Will the the Galaxy Kids Chinese App teach my child to do the four big Chinese skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (听说读写)?
Listen 听
There is plenty of repetition for each key vocabulary word in the thematic lesson across all the games. So definitely a Yes here.
Speak 说
Yes! I personally think this is the best feature of the Galaxy Kids Chinese App. Primarily in each thematic lesson, your child has to listen and repeat the key vocabulary word multiple times throughout the different games. A score is given to indicate how accurate your pronunciation is, which is fantastic and immediate feedback.
And this is the best part – with the AI powered chat, you can have a wonderful conversation on any topic of your child’s choice. The characters make great conversation partners, so even if you are not a native speaker, your children can still practise speaking in Chinese. It’s scary how fluent the bots are.
Read 读
Yes. Your child will be required to read the key vocabulary word and given a score for the “test”.
Write 写
No. There is no lesson on writing in the Galaxy Kids Chinese App.
What’s good about the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
There are honestly so many good things about the Galaxy Kids Chinese app. Let me start with how fun, colourful and encouraging it is. Whenever you give a correct response, bells and whistles blow, the characters come out and dance for you! and you feel absolutely fantastic that you have said/learnt a Chinese word correctly.
This is a great app for children to practise Chinese conversation skills with. We have used many Chinese educational apps, and our favourite is iHuman Chinese LINK. The biggest weakness of the iHuman Chinese app was the lack of a speech recognition component, which is beautifully offered in the Galaxy Kids Chinese app.
Free Access
I honestly don’t know of any other Chinese educational apps that is so generous with its access. Let’s hope for yours and my sake that they keep it that way. Get this, not only is it free to use for 3 learning activities per day, you also get free access to the Playground for mini chats, and 3 rounds of speech practice in the Speech Lab (that’s approximately 15 Chinese characters per day). Not bad for $0. And also, if you have 3 kids like I do, you get 3 learning activities per profile and not across profiles.
What’s not so good about the the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
It’s still a relatively new app, and can be a bit glitchy at times. Sometimes it hangs on the game and fails to load. Given my experience the past year, the app has made multiple and regular improvements to the app, and at the time of writing has been a pleasure to use.
The parental verification feature should be slightly more difficult than sliding a line. I think a toddler can easily figure that out!
Will the Galaxy Kids Chinese App really teach my children Chinese?
I think the true strength of Galaxy Kids Chinese is in the speech recognition feature. One of our favourite Chinese educational app iHuman Chinese flaw was the lack of a speech component. Galaxy Kids Chinese features really prominently this aspect. I love that they are including the AI conversation feature in the app, which means that my children can chat to the characters instead of me!
Do I recommend the Galaxy Kids Chinese App?
I highly recommend this for preschoolers and young primary aged children whose first language is English and is acquiring Chinese as a second language. This app will be perfect for parents who do not speak Chinese, or have very basic Chinese skills. The emphasis on the speaking component in the Galaxy Kids Chinese App is unparalleled to any other Chinese educational app currently in the market
Recommended age: 3 to 8
Where to download the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
The Galaxy Kids Chinese App is available to download for free on Apple App Store.
Pricing
Monthly subscription – AUD23.49.
Yearly subscription – AUD115.99 (a huge discount at 60% off the subscription fee). You can try it for free for 3 day, and cancel at least 24 hours before the next billing period.
Awards and Accolades for the Galaxy Kids Chinese App
The Galaxy Kids Chinese App has won the EdTech X Asia – All Stars Startup Award, IPST STEM Education Ambassador Award and the Mom’s Choice Award – Gold.
Reviews from other bloggers
Don’t just take my word for it. Other Mandarin Chinese bloggers have used it and gave it a resounding thumbs up. This includes:
LTL Mandarin did a review of the Galaxy Kids Chinese app and gave it a 9/10 score!
Likewise Bilingual Kid Spot reviewed the app and was similarly impressed at how fun and engaging it was to learn Mandarin Chinese.
LahLahBanana is a fellow Mandarin Chinese parent blogger based in Singapore. She declared the Galaxy Kids Chinese as one of the top new Chinese app in 2022. This was before the AI chat update and additional speech features. I wonder what she would think of the app now?
Additional Galaxy Kids Chinese resources
You can find out more about the Galaxy Kids Chinese app on their official website.
You can listen to the stories and songs from the Galaxy Kids Chinese app on the Galaxy Kids Chinese Kids Stories and Music Youtube Channel
If you are raising your children bilingual like me, Galaxy Kids also has an English educational app called Galaxy Kids English App
Other Chinese learning apps for your consideration
iHuman Chinese app is one of our all time favourite Chinese learning app. We have been using it for the past 3 years!
Kids Learn Mandarin Chinese App – a cute and simple Chinese educational app that’s great for toddlers who are just starting their Mandarin Chinese journey.
Learn Chinese with Dr Panda App is another cute Chinese educational app which could appeal to panda fans.
Chinese Learning Apps to Recommend?
Have you tried the Galaxy Kids Chinese app? What did you think about it?
OR have you tried another Chinese learning app and absolutely loved it? Please share with me and our readers!!
