This came up yesterday in minor German news....the SPD Party has asked the Ministry of Transportation to arrange for the German driver's test to be conducted in Arabic, to benefit the incoming Syrians.
Presently, there are two methods to the license....for incoming people of all nationalities (outside of the EU).
You can pay a local driver-trainer and he can apply the test in English or German. Generally, this is the most simple way and regarded by most as the most successful way of learning driving skills in Germany. The negative is the cost factor (minimum of a thousand Euro, and it could go up a bit if your skills or understanding is lousy).
The second way is a do-it-yourself deal. You fill out the paperwork and go to the BurgerAmt in your town. This is of course....assuming you are from a country that offers corresponding rights to Germans who come to their country. Most US states offer such a deal, but not all US states. Test? None. But you'd best sit down and read the manual carefully because driving in Germany is hectic and crazy at times.
The SPD angle to this? If you have around half-a-million Syrians who show up in one single year....the driver's license is going to be a major issue.
Translating the test over? I would imagine if they hired two or three Syrian-speakers and were good at German....it'd take less than sixty days to translate the manual and tests over to the new language.
Course, some people might point out that Syrians only make up 30-odd percent of the incoming people. So why don't you offer the others a driving chance via their own language? Well, yeah....it begs questions.
The anti-immigrant crowd? They will question the wisdom of this and simply state that you need to speak, read and write in German....to survive....so why mess around with the testing or study manual? It's the same way with the integration classes....it would beg questions if you flipped the drivers test over and didn't do the same thing with the integration class as well.
The reaction time by the Transport Ministry? This will be put on the research situation and require some smart folks to determine the plus-minus of doing this. You can figure a minimum of six months studying this before they react one way or another. Then you can figure another six months in getting the test/material translated and approved. It won't happen in a quick manner.
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