San Francisco has made Vietnamese an official city language.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Vietnamese became an official city language after a unanimous vote from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The goal is to ensure San Francisco residents can access services in the language they are comfortable with.
City data estimates that around 6,800 residents in San Francisco speak primarily Vietnamese, VN Express International reports. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an old ordinance required the city to translate services into languages with at least 10,000 speakers in the city. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment that will lower the threshold to 6,500 speakers.
District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton introduced the amendment to the legislature last year.
“San Francisco is home to many diverse immigrant communities and is a national leader in providing language access services with one of the strongest and most comprehensive local language access laws,” Walton said at a news conference ahead of Tuesday’s vote per the San Francisco Chronicle.
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