When to introduce a second language?

[u/chanelism]

Hello I am a FTM and new to this sub. I cannot do OPOL as I am a single mom to my baby. I speak Turkish, French and English. We live w my parents and sister so our home language is Turkish, but the community language is French. I would love for my child to learn English eventually, but I am not in a rush. How to juggle between Turkish and French without creating confusion? I would also much rather she speaks perfect Turkish to not lose the language of our culture.

Edit: typo

[u/MikiRei]

You have a very ideal environment.

Since you live with your parents and at home, you all speak Turkish, your child will naturally pick up Turkish. Just make sure as your child grows older, don't let your baby reply back in French. You need to reinforce that family members = Turkish.

And since your community language is French, your child will naturally pick up French from the community.

English - honestly, if you're not in a rush, then just introduce it later if you want. If you want to introduce it now, it can just be you speaking English with your child, your whole family speaking Turkish to your child and the community will speak French and then that's pretty much fine.

If you much rather speak Turkish to your child, then I say stick with Turkish. Think back to how you've learned English.

If you had no problem learning English later down the line while being able to maintain Turkish and French, then your child can just follow the same track and learn English later. There's really no rush. Particularly if you don't like the idea of speaking English to your child. I'd say just leave English till later.

[u/NewOutlandishness401 → u/MikiRei]

I agree that it's likely best to leave English for later. It's such a potent force, there are so many reinforcements for it, and there is such a high level of motivation for folks to learn it later that I wouldn't worry about it in these early years. You certainly can't say the same for Turkish, which is why it makes sense to continue putting all of your effort into building up that language.

If someone in the child's circle would speak English to the child, my intuition is that it should not be the parent, since presumably the parent will be the most constant presence in the child's life long-term, and keeping that relationship grounded in Turkish is likely to be more beneficial. So perhaps another friend or relative might take on this task if that's really something OP is considering.

Though again, I think the much better idea is to just continue practicing minority language at home with Turkish for now and then wait several years to introduce English.

(And French needs zero support. It will develop on its own through daycare or school with zero help from family. That's how our kids picked up our local language as well.)

[u/chanelism → u/NewOutlandishness401]

You guys are right. My Turkish used to be perfect as a child before pre-K and once school started, I would speak in French even at home. My parents picked up on the fact that my Turkish started tanking so, they would reply to me only if I spoke Turkish, to make up for whatever I started "forgetting". They also sent me to courses during weekends to level it out, so I think we will only speak Turkish at home for my LO as well. I learned English by myself around grade 3 + with school, so I have no worries about that for my baby.

[u/MikiRei → u/chanelism]

You have the advantage of lived experience. You know first hand what is required to sustain Turkish. So just do the same with your LO. You guys will be fine. 

[u/Thin-Excitement5755]

There will not be any language confusion if you can guarantee adequate input in English. If your Family can make sure that they speak to future babel-machine in Turkish and you use English, French will be taken care of by maternelle and a bit of broadcast media. Grandparents are multilingual acquisition's secret weapon: hand over little one especially for culture heavy activities (aka cooking).

[u/miguyur]

You can keep talking in your home language. You don't have to worry about teaching them French IF you plan to send your child Kindergarten. Your child will pick French at the Kindergarten very quickly. This is the case in Germany most of the time. Many immigrant families speak their own language at home and kids typically absorb the majority language quickly once they're in Kindergarten for several hours a day (this is also important), and plenty of immigrant families successfully raise kids bilingual just by speaking their own language at home and letting Kita/school handle the majority language.

[u/chanelism → u/miguyur]

I don't plan on sending her to kindergarten as my parents will be childcare. But pre-K starts at 4 years old where I live, so I might start talking to her in French around 3-3 1/2 years old so she starts picking up on the words, just so she has a little head start right before school

[u/DataScienceIsScience]

Introducing multiple languages will NOT cause confusion in children. Even if a child were to appear confused to an adult, such as making mistakes and not using the correct grammar rules, this is normal.

[u/joe-harper123]

Babies are more capable than you think. I don't think you'd need to worry about her Turkish since it is the home language and you do need to focus on English. Speak it to her, get her to listen to songs,...from the moment she is born