A group of Dartmouth College students and community advocates want to make it easier for U.S. citizens from Brazil to obtain a New Hampshire driver’s license. They hope this will also help to spur other efforts to fix language barriers at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
Ten student volunteers recently translated the department’s 45-page driving manual — which is used to study for a computer-based knowledge exam — to Portuguese. While the state’s driver's license exam is available in seven languages, including Spanish, French and Swahili, the study material is only available in English.
Department officials say the PDF format they use to publish the manual and many other related documents blocks the Google translation tool they use on their webpage.
Bruno D’Britto, director of the New Hampshire Brazilian Council, said the independent translation effort is one his community has been waiting for.
“Not being fluent becomes a barrier to getting your driver’s license,” said D’Britto.
His organization partnered with Carlos Cortez Minchillo, an associate professor in Dartmouth's department of Portuguese and Spanish, and 10 other volunteers who translated the handbook with the goal of preserving its integrity and style.
“It doesn’t make sense: You have to know English to study, but then you can take the test in any language,” Cortez Minchillo said.
Cortez Minchillo — who teaches a class about Brazilian art, literature, language and films — said Dartmouth has numerous second-generation and international Brazilian students who want to learn more about regional society disparities. He said many do not come from affluent households and had to interpret for their non-English speaking parents when they were kids.
“They are aware of how privileged they are [for studying at Dartmouth],” he said. “That gives them a new perspective that now they can do something for other people who might be living in conditions they know well back in Brazil.”
John Marrasco, director of the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles, said the DMV has also received multiple requests to translate the material to Spanish. He plans to request funds in the next fiscal year budget to hire language translation contractors.
Meanwhile, he said he supports Dartmouth’s initiative and will consider adding the new manual to the DMV’s website after certifying the accuracy of the translation.
“I think it is wonderful,” he said. “I give them a lot of credit [...] we got to do a better job.”
He said his department has been striving to expand their language options, hiring people who speak multiple languages, and translating games for children who wait at the DMV office while their parents.
D’Britto hopes other immigrant communities start similar initiatives to show DMV officials this is a real gap. His next step is to try to pass legislation that would allow non-English speakers to have an interpreter during the road test.
