If you step outside right now and walk a couple of blocks, you'll probably hear at least a couple people speaking a language other than English.

Chances are, if you're a native New Yorker, you speak another language besides English yourself. Unsurprisingly, where you grew up is probably an indicator.

This census map color codes New York City neighborhoods based on the most common language spoken.

Web developer and designer Jill Hubley, who also created maps of NYC's tree species, toxic spills, and greenhouse gas emissions by building, used the United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey to create the visual.

NYC's neighborhood map is featured side-by-side with a list of languages bulleted by colored boxes that you can check and uncheck to appear on the map.

The Languages of NYC map, which you can also access here, was on display the past weekend at the Queens Museum

As reported by Gothamist, there are limitations to the graphic due to the way that the information was collected by the federal government.

For example, while Thai, Urdu, and Tagalog are given their own tick marks, there are also boxes for "Other Asian Languages" and "Other Pacific Island Languages" as if one, the Pacific Island wasn't part of Asia and two, there are hundreds of languages spoken throughout Asia.

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Hubley herself points out that "The data collection needs to be looked at a little more."

As an example, Rikers Island is designated as French Creole and Central Park's language besides English is Vietnamese, which seems pretty rando.

image

via Jill Hubley

Obviously, while English and Spanish are the most spoken languages in the city, you can exclude them for a micro- portrait of the many other languages spoken in different neighborhoods.

[via Gothamist] [Feature Image Courtesy JillHubley.com] 

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