Driving schools push for manuals in Portuguese
This post is also available in: Portuguese (Portugal)
Boston – While the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) offers driver’s manuals in Spanish, members of Portuguese communities question why these are not being offered in their language.
“Portuguese is spoken more than Spanish in this state,” stated Liberal Baptista, owner of St. Michael Driving School, in Fall River, who has been lobbying for a Portuguese manual for years.
With Portuguese being the second most commonly spoken language in Massachusetts after English, according to Gov. Deval L. Patrick – who embarked on a trade mission to Brazil this past December – Portuguese community members have been taking charge to help the Portuguese-speaking driving students.
“We teach in Portuguese and English, so we translated the manuals into Portuguese,” stated Joe Amaral, owner of Amaral Auto & Truck Driving School Inc., in Westport and New Bedford.
Baptista, who also translated the manuals and paid out of pocket to have them printed, stated that he went as far as dropping some off at the Registry of Motor Vehicles and has asked State Representative Kevin Aguiar to lobby for the cause.
“There are people that do not understand English and Spanish,” stated Baptista, adding that the State and its representatives are not doing anything to help the Portuguese communities.
The driver’s manual is translated into Spanish and posted online for customers to download and print, as part of the Patrick-Murray Administration’s transportation reform agenda to strengthen customer service.
“This is another step forward in our efforts to reach out to all of our customers and better understand their individual needs,” stated Registrar Rachel Kaprielian, when the Spanish manuals first came out. “We want to ensure all Massachusetts drivers understand the universal language of safety on our roadways.”
However, not all Massachusetts drivers understand Spanish or English, especially when considering the significant pockets of Brazilian immigrants in cities such as Framingham, and a large population of Portuguese Americans spread across SouthCoast cities like Fall River and New Bedford and communities such as Somerville, Lowell, Hudson and Milford.
“If they do it for one language, they should do it for other languages,” stated Amaral, who has owned and operated a driving school since the 80’s. Amaral also stated that manuals are purchased by the students and, therefore, are not a burden on the taxpayer.
In Rhode Island the driver’s manuals are only offered in English and Spanish, however, the state offers a vocabulary of a road test in Portuguese, English and Spanish.
According to MassDOT, Spanish is the second most popular Class D learner’s permit exam behind English.
“Driver’s manuals come in English and Spanish because Spanish is the language most demanded by our customers,” explained Sara Lavoie, Press Secretary for MassDOT. “One of the goals [this fiscal year] is to come up with a funding plan to produce additional translations.”
Unlike the driver’s manuals, the permit exams in Mass. are offered in 25 different foreign languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Czech, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese.
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