Vietnamese Becomes An Official Language of San Francisco City (US)

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As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on June 11, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to formally declare Vietnamese an official city language that requires the authorities’ provision of translation services.

The move is a part of the language access ordinance in San Francisco. Also, it is aimed at ensuring that residents can be served in the language that is most convenient for them. The ordinance, enacted in 2001, previously required city departments to translate services into any language with at least 10,000 speakers in the city who have limited English proficiency.

San Francisco Chronicle reported that the legislation was introduced last year by District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton (Photo: San Francisco Chronicle)

The threshold was recently lowered to 6,000. It allowed the inclusion of Vietnamese to the list previously consisting of only Chinese, Spanish, and Filipino.

A total of 6,791 San Francisco residents identify as primarily Vietnamese speakers, according to the city’s language data dashboard. The city will now have to provide telephonic interpretations, website text, written notices, and other official services in Vietnamese.

San Francisco Chronicle also reported that the legislation was introduced last year by District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton, who said the city needed to expand language access to ensure its immigrant communities can participate in the government process.

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