“Immediate language courses of the seven most spoken immigrant languages for the Umbrian traffic controllers.”
This is the sarcastic suggestion that Giorgio Pagano, Secretary of the “Esperanto” Radical Association, had to offer to the Umbria’s Regional Road Safety Councillor, Stefano Vinti.
“Seeing as we don’t spend enough money to educate the illiterate immigrants who take our driving tests in Italian, let’s follow Vinti’s advice and spend some more to translate the driving tests in the seven languages that are spoken by immigrants the most in Italy. While we’re at it, let’s spend some more to teach these seven languages to the entire department of traffic controllers who will then have to speak to the newly-licensed drivers in their language. If the driver has taken his license in Arab, the traffic controller can notify him of his violation in Arab. Linguistic democracy in Italy can be divided in to two parts: that half that cuts the budget used to defend the Italian language and language minority rights, which are squashed on the same territory where they are supposed to be protected, and then there is the forced imposition of the English language in universities and elementary schools, and, to top off the icing on the cake, we have folkloristic ideas such as these that make you laugh, once in a while,” Pagano continued.
“Instead of encouraging immigrants to learn our language and then integrate, so they can then become a part of society and land a job with less difficulty, the Councillor thinks it’s wiser to do the exact opposite and ensure that immigrants take their driver’s license in their own language…as if it’s as simple as taking out an insurance policy, or replacing a sticker, or making an amicable agreement when an accident occurs, an so on. The most ironic element of all, ironic if it weren’s so tragic, that is, is that a Sardinian citizen, being a linguistic minority, is protected by the Constitution all the linguistic minority regulations apply to him, yet he must take his driver’s license in Italian.”