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Hello, my sister is looking to move to the U.S.. from ethiopia
she doesnt speak much english.. i told her that D.C has a large ethiopian population and she should look into moving there..
Im personally born and raised in the U.S.. but have never been to D.C..
It looks like in D.C, government organizations are required to have amharic for non english speakers.. but besides that, do they have amharic services in public transportations, shopping malls, supermarkets, restaurants, libraries, etc? How easy would it be for someone who only spoke amharic to get around DC?
Btw she is learning english.. its not like shes trying to move to a country and not assimilate..
Look up Skyline area in northern Virginia as well- very high concentration of Ethiopians and slightly less urban / more affordable than DC if she's not into the nightlife. There is a shopping center there with mostly Amharic and Arabic signs- lots of coffee shops, restaurants, groceries, and small service businesses. Even 7-11s in the area carry injera. The local government has some support for Amharic and there's at least one local radio station in Amharic. Also a LOT of the cab drivers here are Ethiopians so she should be able to get help from drivers when getting around at first.
Also- while it is good to learn some English, honestly some people here get along fine without learning much. The DC area is pretty understanding of non-English speakers because of tourists and diplomatic staff as well as new immigrants, and then there is enough Amharic speaking density so staff anywhere can usually find someone to help. I live near Columbia Pike and work at the polls on election days- every year we have Ethiopian new citizen first time voters and some haven't learned much English yet (but they are totally welcome! Love the diversity of my neighborhood!).
Also the local school district info- https://www.acps.k12.va.us/language-amheric
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