(WSVN) – Florida residents scrambled to take their driver’s license exams on the last day they could do so in a language other than English.
Starting Friday, the state’s driver’s license exams are changing to English only. The change is stressing non-native English speakers, like Jacksonville resident Ana Valdes.
“Anxiety and worried, because imagine not dominating English perfectly,” she said through a translator.
The change is causing confusion among many license applicants.
“We aren’t going to be able to learn English from one day to the next,” said Valdes.
Anxiety is inevitably setting in.
Valdes said she has been preparing for her driver’s license exam for months. She did not expect to be taking the test on Thursday.
But she quickly booked her appointment after seeing the state will only give license tests in English starting Friday.
“If they could give us a bit more time, it would be beneficial,” she said.
The state will also be ending language translation services during tests.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said in a press release:
“Florida takes a leading role in highway safety by requiring all driver license exams to be taken in English and without an interpreter.”
Before the change, exams were able to be taken in Arabic, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and other languages for non-commercial licenses.
Not all Floridians oppose the change in policy.
“I think it’s a good thing. I mean, we’re Americans, and Americans should have an English language for the test,” said Terry Caldwell.
But others take issue with the state’s decision.
“I don’t think that’s fair. If, if people understand better in their in their native language, it’s no problem, as long as it’s the same test all the English readers get,” said a man.
“You know, assistant for them as well if they could not understand, like, you know, the harder words or a professional word for some reason [for] people [who], you know, just got here,” said a woman.
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