To want DH to help me with reinforcing 2nd language for DC

[wowihaveagardennow]

DH and I were both born and raised in the UK and speak English fluently. DH did grow up with an African culture but can't speak the language and considers himself English anyway.
I grew up with an Asian culture and was taught the Asian language as a first language before going to school (both my parents speak English fluently) and then I learned English when I went to school.

I would love to teach our 1 year old the language I grew up speaking and try to speak to her exclusively in that language. DH has picked up a few words of this language.

DC uses the Asian word for milk when she wants her bottle. Yesterday I heard DH try to get her to call it milk but she wasn't getting what he meant as she just uses the Asian word for milk. So I asked him why doesn't he just use the Asian word (he knows what DC calls it) and he said he wants DC to know the English word and he's worried that she won't learn it. I said given we live in the UK, school and work are in English and TV is in English it's actually almost certain that DC will prefer to speak English always and it would be not easy for me to maintain the second language anyway and so I would appreciate it if he could help me by using the few words he knows. He disagrees and just wants to speak English always.

AIBU to want him to do this?

One parent one language. He always uses the English words, you use the other language. I never use my husband's language to speak to my children. They are bilingual

I think whatever you decide you both need to be on the same page otherwise it will be very confusing for your daughter. In my experience it works well when one parent speaks one language to their child and the other speaks the other language then the child learns both fluently (I know several bilingual families where this works really well). It takes the child longer to learn to speak but when they do they are fluent in both. But if you don't agree a strategy soon then it will just end in language confusion for the child.

You are absolutely right that English will happen naturally but the second language will take work. To achieve real bilingualism you need to be quite strict in always using the second language with her. There is no need for DH to use it though, but he shouldn't be correcting her when she uses the second language. Bilingual kids quickly reach a point where they use one language to talk to one parent and one to the other parent but when they're little there's always some overlap. When she uses the Asian word for milk there's no problem with him saying 'that's right, here's your milk' but certainly not trying to get her to stop using the Asian word.

My mum never taught me her language as she found it hard at the time to get back up from my English Dad.
So gutted as I would absolutely love to be able to speak her language. I do try but it's really hard.

One parent one language, so he speaks english and you use your language exclusively

One person, one language.

It's perfectly fine to give her the milk and say "here's your milk."
It's not fine to refuse to give her milk until she asks for it in English.