Chinese toolbox is featuring smart speaker, Amazon Echo! Have you tried to ask Alexa to tell you how to say a word in Chinese yet?
If you have an Amazon Echo you can try it now. Ask: “Alexa, How do you say Hello in Chinese?”
We have tried Chinese, Spanish, French, German, and Russian so far. Kids think it is a lot of fun!
I also want to share with you how to use the Amazon Echo to listen to Chinese songs, radio, and audio albums.
Last time we touched on the Tune-In app. Tune-In is an app that you can use to listen to international radio stations with your smart phone. You can also search various radio channels by location or by language with this app.
Amazon Echo can play podcasts and radio stations from Tune-In and iHeartRadio. Use the Amazon Echo to listen to Chinese songs and radio stations is easy.
Follow the list below to start the fun. You might be interested in know more about why music and songs are wonderful tools on your bilingual journey.
Will Alexa ibe fully multilingual? We would like to see that.
At this time, the radio programs you can listen to are from around the world. Children will have fun using the voice control to select a Chinese radio station to listen to.
You have many choices. You can listen to a Chinese radio station, a Chinese podcast or a Chinese audio album. Smart speaker can be a learning tool and a resource at home and in the classroom.
Alexa, play KAZN on TuneIn.
KAZN is a Chinese radio station in L.A. It broadcasts programs from Los Angeles, China and Taiwan. From traffic report to restaurant reviews, to cross-cultural discussions, this channel has it all. For children, there is a Chinese story time from 10am to 11am (PST) every Saturday.
Alexa, play Yes 93.3 on Tune-In!
Yes 93.3 is a top Chinese language radio station in Singapore. It is a Chinese pop music station and plays hit songs from China, Singapore, Taiwan with occasional foreign songs from other Asian countries and the U.S. The conversation between the on-air personalities and call-in listeners as well as interviews with celebrities are fun to listen to.
Do you have “Let’s Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda!” audio CD/MP3 album in your home library? You can listen to it on your Amazon Echo as well!! Playful learning is everywhere!
“Alexa, play UFM1003 on Tune-In
(read 1003as “one-zero-zero-three”)
UFM100.3 is another popular Chinese language radio station in Singapore. It is a contemporary hit radio station with news, songs, and content targeted at office crowd.
“Alexa, play CNR Voice of China on TuneIn!”
CNY Voice of China has a great collection of programs. There are folk songs, book reviews, news, interviews, culture talk,…etc. You can listen to CNR on mobile devices via Tune-In app as well.
Alexa, play the album “Let’s Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda!”
If you have purchased a music/audio album on Amazon and you have saved it in your music library then you can say “Alexa, Play the album, ‘[title].‘” You can say the same to listen to the sample of an album.
You can also visit Tune-In to explore more!
One of my favorite stations, UFO Radio is not available on Amazon Echo at this time, but it is available on Tune-In.
UFO Radio – Taiwan
Teaching Tips with Amazon Echo at home and in the classroom. Games you can incorporate by using the Amazon Echo.
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Who’s Singing
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Catch a Line of lyrics
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Brain Break ideas:
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Music Chair
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Freeze Dance
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Copycat Dancer
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Lip Sync Battle
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Enthusiasm is Contagious. Most of my morning starts with playing Yes93.3 on Amazon Echo! My kids start singing a line or two with me wiggling with the Chinese song playing in the background. It is also a fun experience for my students. Are you ready to give it a try?
Explore in Sing and Learn Chinese Series
Chinese Song for Little Kids: Ni Hao Song and Number 1-10 Song
Chinese Song for Little Kids: The Ugly Little Duckling
11 Chinese Songs and Nursery Rhymes for Children
Teaching Children a New Langauge with Songs and Movements
Chinese Songs and Lessons for Young Learners: Let’s Learn Mandarin Chinese with Miss Panda!
Chinese Song for Big Kids: Lion King Hakuna Matata
Chinese Song for Big Kids: Chinese Language – Zhong Guo Hua
Chinese Song for Big Kids: Sorry, My Chinese Is Not Good
Chinese Song for Big Kids: I Miss You Very Much
So cool! I need to try this out. I do have an Echo and I always want to learn things from other languages. My daughter would have fun with them.
She will have a lot of fun. Echo is a learning tool for home and in the classroom. Enjoy!
how awesome is that! im planning to learn French soon and i think this would be helpful!
You will definitely be able to find French-speaking radio stations using Echo. It is a fun learning tool.
I have been eyeing yhe amazon echo for a while now and I think I am.just going to give in and have one and hope I don’t need four more at the end lol.
I think it is good to start with one and see how it goes. The possibility of having more is always there…
What a great idea – I love anything that teaches kids while they’re having fun. It’s amazing what technology can do, and the Echo is pretty awesome.
That is very true. My students really enjoy it when I use it in the language program.
A friend told me about amazon echo and being able to listen to international stations, i thought it was cool and definitely want to get it now.
Check it out. You will have fun with it.
What a great tool to learn a new language. I didn’t realize it was available in other languages.
Isn’t it fun? It is always good to know a new educational tool.
Cool! Seems like everyone has an Echo these days. Guess I’ll have to bite the bullet soon 🙂
I know you would enjoy it. Give it a try!
That’s too cool! Absolutely want an Echo for myself, it’s so useful and funny too!
Great device to have for music, podcasts, and much. I hope you enjoy it.
A part of me wants one of these for all the fun features, but another part thinks it’s kind of creepy.
That is very interesting to hear your impression of Echo. I can understand that though. Just think it is a radio with voice control.
This sounds great. A great way for a whole family to learn something new. Thanks for sharing this. I’ll have to think about getting it a bit more now.
I hope you enjoy it. For language learning it is a good and fun tool.
For the first time, I hear about Echo. Spreads like a brilliant learning tool.
You can listen to your favorite podcasts and music around the world when you are having a cup of coffee at home. it is a resourceful device.
That’s a perfect tool for learning a new language… I never knew about it before reading this post ☺️👍🏻
Hope you can use it to polish your target language! Enjoy!
Thank you for this helpful post with specific radiostations! Will share this on my Facebook page with other parents!
We really enjoy this tool and it has been a lot of fun! Thank you for exploring with us and thanks for sharing!
Cool! You make my day. Its too funny and i can’t stop my laugh by listening the chinese songs on Amazon Echo. I think she can be a good singer :p
I hope you find your favorite channels to listen to. Alexa does sing and I have only heard it in English at this time. Enjoy!