kennethkivumbi
New member
My native language is Turkish, my wife's is Bosnian and we have been living in Sweden for nearly the past 6 years. My wife learned some Turkish but we speak English among each other, as we have always been. Unfortunately we still don't speak Swedish very well since we work in international companies where the main language of communication is English and Swedish people are very good with English so we never felt a great need to learn it. You always get by with English on your daily life here.
When our son was born, we were confused whether to follow the OPOL technique or introduce English alone to avoid confusion. Although my wife was an OPOL advocate (I suppose like the majority here), I was in favor of getting him up to speed with his speech by introducing only one language. I will admit I was a bit impatient to have a meaningful chat with him and thought it would take him much longer to master too many languages and level one up to a fluent degree. Now, I see how capable babies are and regret my decision a little bit. Luckily, my wife, breaking free from my ignorance, decided to introduce Bosnian more intensely when he was 16 months old. Meanwhile, yours truly was still adamant about English alone.
Now, he is very fluent in English, possibly using over a thousand words and forming 4-6 word sentences. He's also fairly fluent in Swedish, which he was exposed to daily in daycare since he was 14 months old, and he can have simple conversations in Bosnian with his mother. Seeing his impressive language skills, I finally decided to introduce Turkish. Here's how it played out
Sitting in his room one evening, I grabbed a book that has a dog on the cover and gathered my courage, nervous and excited to see his reaction when I speak in Turkish with him for the first time..
ME: Bak, bu bir köpek. (meaning: look, this is a dog)
HIM: (perplexed, his brow furrowed) WHAT?
ME: It means "look this is a dog" in Turkish. You know that I speak Turkish with my parents and friends. I want to speak in Turkish with you too.
HIM: No, no, no, no, no (as in bro don't you dare to bring up one more language now) , it is not pöpük ( starts crying), it's a DOG.
Ever since, all the attempts I have made have been met with a similar response. He just doesn't want me to introduce another language. The reason I really want him to learn is that it finally dawned on me that, although I am fluent, I am not a native English speaker. I feel insecure around native speakers when I am speaking with him and don't want a language that we don't speak perfectly to be our main means of communication. Although I love English, I guess I am a bit frightened of being judged. I know it's silly.
Have any of you been in a similar situation? How can I introduce Turkish at this point? Also, do you think our not-so-perfect English will leave a mark on him later in life?
When our son was born, we were confused whether to follow the OPOL technique or introduce English alone to avoid confusion. Although my wife was an OPOL advocate (I suppose like the majority here), I was in favor of getting him up to speed with his speech by introducing only one language. I will admit I was a bit impatient to have a meaningful chat with him and thought it would take him much longer to master too many languages and level one up to a fluent degree. Now, I see how capable babies are and regret my decision a little bit. Luckily, my wife, breaking free from my ignorance, decided to introduce Bosnian more intensely when he was 16 months old. Meanwhile, yours truly was still adamant about English alone.
Now, he is very fluent in English, possibly using over a thousand words and forming 4-6 word sentences. He's also fairly fluent in Swedish, which he was exposed to daily in daycare since he was 14 months old, and he can have simple conversations in Bosnian with his mother. Seeing his impressive language skills, I finally decided to introduce Turkish. Here's how it played out
Sitting in his room one evening, I grabbed a book that has a dog on the cover and gathered my courage, nervous and excited to see his reaction when I speak in Turkish with him for the first time..
ME: Bak, bu bir köpek. (meaning: look, this is a dog)
HIM: (perplexed, his brow furrowed) WHAT?
ME: It means "look this is a dog" in Turkish. You know that I speak Turkish with my parents and friends. I want to speak in Turkish with you too.
HIM: No, no, no, no, no (as in bro don't you dare to bring up one more language now) , it is not pöpük ( starts crying), it's a DOG.
Ever since, all the attempts I have made have been met with a similar response. He just doesn't want me to introduce another language. The reason I really want him to learn is that it finally dawned on me that, although I am fluent, I am not a native English speaker. I feel insecure around native speakers when I am speaking with him and don't want a language that we don't speak perfectly to be our main means of communication. Although I love English, I guess I am a bit frightened of being judged. I know it's silly.
Have any of you been in a similar situation? How can I introduce Turkish at this point? Also, do you think our not-so-perfect English will leave a mark on him later in life?
Just you focus on teaching him the world’s language 
Like our parents did or we did ourselves. Water flow and find its way and you are already paving a beautiful way for him.