This study analyzed the acquisition of the interactional competence in an environment where children used two or three languages every day. Two aspects were examined: the acquisition of culturemes such as thanking and greeting, and the comprehension of indirect requests. The bilingual children observed were eight Swedish-Estonian children, six German-Swedish children, and six German-English children. The trilingual children observed were three Estonian-Swedish-German children and four Swedish-English-German children. The children ranged in age from 1 to 7. Results of the study showed that verbal and nonverbal behavior are important in the case of the politeness culturemes. They are taught and drilled by the parents, often by using indirect requests. There were no significant differences between bilingual and trilingual children. The analysis of comprehension of indirect requests in natural settings showed that not only is the type of indirect request important, but also the "token" is important. The frequency of the tokens in the child's environment appears to be a basic factor in their being acquired. (NCR)