Ethiopian immigrants and refugees have been arriving on U.S. shores for the past 20 years, bringing with them a wealth of cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity. In fact, the U.S. Department of State indicates that Ethiopia has 77 different ethnic groups, each with its own language! Of those 77 ethnic groups, three-fourths are ethnic Amhara, Oromo and Tigreans whose primary languages are Amharic, Oromifa (Oromo) and Tigrinya, respectively. Sizeable populations also speak Arabic, Somali and English.

For those of you with Ethiopian populations in your school district, the question you may have asked yourself is “Which language(s) should my school district translate into?” With limited school budgets, sometimes it is cost prohibitive to provide education language translation services for all three primary languages. So, without a doubt, your best bet is to always ask your audience which language is most widely spoken in their community.

However, if this is not a possibility, Amharic may be the second best solution. Amharic is the official language of Ethiopia. Most Ethiopian elementary schools teach Amharic and it is, according to the CIA Factbook, the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia. If you have Ethiopian families in your district, keep this in mind when undertaking your next language translation services project.

Keep Learning!
Maggie
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