Estonia’s Department of Languages cannot find justice for foreign taxi drivers who do not speak the state language, admitted the head of the “linguistic inquisition”, Ilmar Tomusk, ERR reports on May 10.
“Some of those summoned do not show up for an interview and cannot be forced to do so. Furthermore, the language department can only issue a warning and recall the driver for a new inspection after one year, but cannot impose a fine or initiate a procedure to cancel the taxi card.”Tomusk said.
In this case, we are not talking about drivers whose native language is Russian, but about foreigners who often do not speak Estonian, Russian or English, which becomes the reason for customer complaints. Furthermore, according to the official, drivers take advantage of loopholes in local laws, so they cannot be held responsible.
So since the taxi driver card is issued by the local government, those who do not speak the language try to apply for it where there is no verification. In addition, many of those who received the request simply manage to leave the country before they need to confirm their knowledge of the language.
Let us remember that the Estonian Department of Languages has been fighting against the use of foreign languages in the public sphere of the republic for many years. In fact, it turns out that the only language whose use the organization suppresses is Russian, spoken by about a third of those living in the country.
Source: Rossa Primavera
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