KM Family’s Harmonious Multilingualism

Our videos represent harmonious multilingualism because they capture the natural, fluid way our family engages with multiple languages every day. In our home, we try to allow the mixing of languages without making corrections feel like a big deal. If our children use the wrong word or mix languages, we’ll respond with the correct version (in the primary parent-child language of that parent), but we do so in a way that feels casual and unforced—sometimes we’ll ask them to repeat the corrected word/order, but it’s more about gentle guidance than asking for immediate change. 

This relaxed approach, in my opinion, helps us all feel comfortable and confident in using all three languages. There’s no pressure to be perfect—just to communicate effectively—and because of that, our children (hopefully!) feel free to express themselves in whichever language feels most natural at the time, even if that means mixing two or three languages in one sentence. While they know which language to use when speaking to people outside the family (and usually don’t mix languages), they also understand that both parents speak all three languages. As a result, they sometimes slip in a word from a second or third language when speaking to a parent, even if it’s not the primary language that parent uses with the children.