Epic High’s Tablo shared the secret to raising his daughter Haru as a fluent bilingual speaker.
On the 31st, a video titled “Friendship issues? Career troubles? Imposter Syndrome? LET ME HELP!” was uploaded to Tablo’s YouTube channel.
In the video, Tablo took time to listen to and respond to subscribers’ concerns. One fan asked, “I’m seriously dating a British boyfriend. Now that I’m in my 30s, I can’t help but think about marriage and having children. It’s still a future plan, but I want my kids to be bilingual in both English and Korean. How did you raise Haru’s language skills?”
Responding, Tablo explained, “Regarding bilingualism, since your boyfriend speaks English and you are fluent in Korean, there won’t be any problem raising a bilingual child. But you do need to keep a bit of balance.”
He said, “My wife speaks only Korean to Haru. And I speak to Haru in English, quite often. Haru switches between English and Korean with me, but we didn’t start English right away.”
He continued, “If you’ve seen the show The Return of Superman, you might remember a scene where I spoke English to Haru and she said, ‘Don’t speak English.’ At that time, Haru couldn’t say a word in English. So we started very late. I waited until she was ready to open her heart to me speaking English.”
Tablo added, “Once that happened, she picked up English very quickly—as all kids do. Children learn languages really fast. So if you want your child to become bilingual, just divide the roles and speak to your child in each language. The child will naturally learn. Don’t worry.”
Tablo was born in Seoul and immigrated to Canada with his family in childhood, obtaining Canadian nationality. He married actress Kang Hye Jung in 2009, and they have a daughter, Haru, who holds dual citizenship in Korea and Canada and is fluent in both Korean and English.