Vietnamese becomes official language in San Francisco
VGP - The San Francisco City Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted unanimously to declare Vietnamese as an official language in the city where nearly 6,800 residents primarily speak Vietnamese.
San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton speaks on the steps of City Hall on June 11, 2024 alongside community-based language access advocates on the topic of Vietnamese becoming an official language in the city. Photo: San Francisco Chronicle
Along with other amendments to San Francisco’s language access ordinance, the move aims to ensure that residents can be served in the language they are most comfortable with, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the same day.
The decision means San Francisco will now have to provide telephonic interpretations, website text, written notices, and other official services in Vietnamese.
With the above decision, Vietnamese will join Chinese, Spanish, and Filipino as languages in which the city must offer translated services./.
