NYers Get Lost In Translation

Almost one in four New Yorkers admit they can’t speak English well, almost three times the national average, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by The Post yesterday.

About 5.7 million of the 7.3 million city residents age 5 and older claimed to know the English language “very well.”

This compares to more than 1.6 million residents who know English “less than very well,” according to the U.S. Census’ 2005 American Community Survey.

New York City’s command of English stood in stark contrast to national figures. Only 8.6 percent of America’s 268.1 million residents over 5 struggle with English, Census data showed.

“If New York is a place of opportunity, then when you don’t know the language, that’s opportunity lost,” said David Chen, executive director of the Chinese-American Planning Council of New York.

Spanish is the No. 1 foreign language spoken in New York, with 1.8 million speakers here, according to Census figures.

Among those, 946,770 reported they speak English “very well,” while 862,108 said they spoke it “less than very well,” the data showed.

Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrión looked more optimistically at the 53 percent of Big Apple Spanish speakers who had also mastered English, as opposed to the 47 percent still struggling.

Carrión reminded constituents they could score big by learning both languages.

“It’s great that more than 50 percent of the [New York’s Spanish-speaking] population is bilingual,” he said.

“As people integrate into this society, the hope is that they would master English and not lose their native tongue.

”There is no doubt that it’s beneficial in so many ways, and it can only make New York competitive in a global market place.“

Chinese was New York’s second-most popular foreign language with 359,839 speakers.

There were 128,171 Chinese speakers who claimed to speak English very well, while 231,668 said they had problems with the language.

Chen said he believes the number of New York Chinese speakers was undercounted – and is made up almost completely of recent immigrants who likely have no English skills at all.

The Chinese-American social worker said hardworking immigrants often can’t get away from their jobs to improve their language skills, hurting their chances of economic advancement.

”I truly believe immigrants want to learn English,“ Chen said.

”It’s a question of resources and convenience. When it’s a choice of learning [English] or going to work, they’re going to pick going to work.”

Russian is New York’s No. 3 foreign language, with 198,969 speakers. Of those, 76,212 say they speak English very well, while 122,757 have problems.

Italian is the Big Apple’s fourth-most popular tongue, with 103,109 speakers.

European French is spoken by 92,539 New Yorkers, followed by Indic (92,257), Creole French (88,420), Yiddish (77,392), Korean (75,175) and Arabic (56,257).