By Bay City News
San Francisco has certified Tagalog as a third additional language, besides English, that must be used in communicating essential city services, city officials announced today.
Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines, joins Chinese and Spanish as languages for which city departments communicating with the public must provide translations.
Mayor Ed Lee's office said that the city's Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs determined that 10,000 San Franciscans who have limited English proficiency speak Tagalog, the threshold that requires translation under the city's Language Access Ordinance.
Forty-five percent of San Franciscans don't speak English at home and may speak any one of 112 different languages spoken in the Bay Area, according to the mayor's office.