This polyglot city is making it official: Agencies will offer services in six of the most common foreign languages spoken — Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian and French Creole.
While many services have been available for years in foreign languages, an order by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday marks the first uniform, citywide policy requiring agencies to provide assistance and translation in additional languages.
Bloomberg said the 1.8 million New Yorkers who struggle with speaking English should be able to interact more easily with government.