July 23, 2008
City to Offer City Services in Top Six Foreign Languages
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg signed Executive Order 120, which requires all city services to offer their services in Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole--the top languages spoke in the city aside from English. The agencies and services must hire coordinators to developer a "Language Access policy" and provide interpretation services and translations of essential public documents. Mayor Bloomberg told reporters yesterday, noting 25% of residents do not speak English as their primary language, "No other place on earth can claim such incredible diversity. It is New York City's greatest historic strength. "
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But they do such a terrible job with these services in English - how are they going to offer them in other languages. Last week a cop in the East Village told me if there was a problem that I should go over to the 9th on 5th street - not call, but actually go over there. Likely they never pick up the phone...
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Wasteful spending (of our money) IMO.
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First off, I think that those who don't have English as their primary language should be encouraged to learn it. I suppose most get by with a bilingual friend (or their kids) to act as translator. Still, I agree with the mayor that there needs to be a base level of service and support for non-English speakers.
As for the diversity comment, while New York's diversity is certainly a strength, there is something to be said for people being able to communicate with one another. It doesn't benefit anyone to have enclaves of people who can't communicate in English. It's bad for them and bad for everyone else.
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I think another point is that while some city residents may know some English, written documents can be very difficult to understand--and having another resource to help them understand them is very useful, for both the city and all residents.
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I agree with Jen & CR.
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Eyekantspel, I totally agree. What good is diversity when you can't bridge the gap?
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Written documents are hard for me to understand. America is king of fine print and misleading sales adds. And please get over the no other city on earth or the universe is more this and that. There are plenty of other cosmopolitian citys in the world that are just as diverse. Get over yourself NYC your not the shyt anymore.
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