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‘A harmful barrier’: new Florida law mandates all driving tests to be offered in English only
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
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How well would any English first people do when going to Germany and try to drive and navigate. I can see the point as our road signage is 99% English. But allowing the non road signage questions in other languages should be allowed like questions about turn signal use etc.
In most of the world they rely far less on written language in their road signage, for exactly this reason. It's just North America that does it different really.
I drove in Austria and Germany for work a few times. After a day or two, you pick up enough words on signs to understand "Entrance" and "Exit" and "One way", but between the symbols and the English on everything, it is probably much easier for us to drive there than for a non-English speaker to drive here. I bet most immigrants learn "No turn on red" faster than "No Parking Enforced on Alternating Wednesdays and Saturdays except on Holidays from 6:00 PM to 12:45 AM".
In any case, speaking English is not required of citizens. Tests were offered in Spanish because of a need for it. It's not that they cannot learn to read a few signs, it's that the written portion of the test needs to be clearly communicated. The ADA requires that illiterate adults be provided with an audio test or interpreter, because it's more important for people to understand the test than it is for the government to bully immigrants to score political points with bigots.
I've done fine driving all across the world often speaking none of the local lingo.