Have you ever heard of Dari? Well, it is a language– also known as Dari Persian– and the Georgia Department of Driver Services plans to add it to languages offered to take the knowledge, or permit, driver’s license test. Also, did you know that in recent years Georgia allows driver’s license exams to be given in 14 different languages including Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Chinese, Laotian, Spanish, Farsi and Vietnamese?
Now comes Dari, because of an influx of Afghan refugees being located in Georgia. It is a reminder, according to the Washington-based organization ProEnglish, that this situation not only further undermines Georgia’s official English-in-government law but also continues to pose a clear safety hazard to motorists.
“As an organization committed to promoting English as our nation’s common tongue and with 32 states including Georgia having English-in-government laws,” ProEnglish Executive Director Stephen Guschov urges that “Gov. Brian Kemp through an executive directive, or the General Assembly, require that driver’s license examinations be given in no languages other than English.”
“All of Georgia’s highway warning and hazard signs are written in English, so it is easy to understand the danger posed by drivers who cannot read English,” Guschov says. “It is just common sense that this trend of allowing driver’s license exams to be given in foreign languages increases the risk of cheating and makes it very difficult to prevent or detect fraud. After all, let’s remember that for refugees or anyone else to become legal residents or U.S. citizens they must demonstrate proficiency in the English language.”
Guschov further explains that “such an English requirement would not affect Georgia from welcoming international businesspeople, tourists or students if the Department of Driver Services were to require that all permanent residents take their driver’s knowledge tests in English. Such a requirement would not have to apply to those on temporary visas for the first 10 years they are in Georgia. And the requirement would still honor driver’s licenses of international business executives, tourists and foreign students.”
“The people of Georgia deserve to have this reform implemented mainly in the name of public safety,” Guschov concludes. “It would also help curb confusing and dangerous multilingualism, while assisting legal immigrants and refugees to assimilate into our American culture.”
