Police cite non-english speaking drivers

[ONEEYEDMIC 68]

Police cite non-english speaking drivers

DALLAS (Oct. 24) -- Dallas police officers have improperly cited drivers for not being able to speak English 38 times in the past three years, Chief David Kunkle said Friday.

Does the DMV offer drivers tests in other languages?

[jayhalsey 6]

Does the DMV offer drivers tests in other languages?

CT apparently does. From here:

http://www.ct.gov/dmv/cwp/view.asp?a=805&q=318042

Knowledge tests are given in the following languages:

Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somalian, Spanish, Turkish and Vietnamese.

The DMV gives oral tests in English only.

Havent seen any steet or road signs in languages other than English though..

Edited October 25, 2009 by jayhalsey

[ny10570 745]

NYS DMV written is available it Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Chinese, English, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Now if you cannot read your native language do not fret! An independent paid interpreter certified by a recognized organization can read the test for you! If anyone is in disbelief over this feel free to flag down a few livery cabs in the bronx. I guarantee at least half speak little if any english.

A short while ago some NYS legislators were pushing to label all highway and state road signs within 100 miles of Quebec in both French and English. Their argument was that Canada does it, we should too. Apparently no one had thought to mention that Quebec has two official languages, and not an undying love for American tourism motivating their signage.

Edited October 25, 2009 by ny10570

[FFLieu 70]

Since the written exams are available in languages other than the Queen's English, yet the road signs are not, when will someone realize that there's something a little counter-productive in all this pandering?

[x635 4,066]

I recently took a week long "Survival Spanish" class for emergency services. Although I knew some spanish to get by in emergency situations, I forgot it all since I got hurt, since I wasn't using it. Learning basic conversational spanish again in that short time

was HARD. I have a new appreciation on how hard it must be to learn the english language.

We not only learned about the language, but about some important cultural differences as well. Many spanish speakers are afraid to speak english for a variety of reasons, from reasons because they are embarrased about their english or afraid they are going to say the wrong thing. Many want to learn english, but some can't even read to begin with (coming from third world countries).

This is a great way to make the hispanic population afraid to call 911 to report a crime. You have to remember how corrupt police officers are in some of the nations that these people come from. Also, these immigrants are often victims of a whole bunch of crime because people know they won't report it. Here in Austin and surrounding cities, if you call to report a crime and are an illegal immigrant, you will not be reported to ICE.

When I went to Ireland and Canada and Hawaii, there were some areas where signs weren't in english. But I adapted.

I think it's ridiculous that REGULAR drivers are ticketed for not speaking english, but Dallas is a whole seperate world from Austin. But, a lot of these drivers ticketed were CDL drivers, and drove tractor trailers to-from Mexico. To drive a big rig here and have a CDL, I think you absoultely should have to speak english.