The DMV never has employed an interpreter at any of its offices, said Beth Parks, spokeswoman for the DMV. Not even for Spanish, though Hispanics make up one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in South Carolina, according to 2000 census figures.

Though some department employees might be bilingual, they are not required to interpret, Parks said.

But the department is working on the problem, she said.

The DMV has created a group made up of people of different ethnicities called the Foreign Citizens Task Force. The task force first met in November and meets in Columbia once a month to examine ways to resolve the issue.

There's no timetable on when a solution will be reached, but "hopefully they'll develop a good plan," Parks said.

Finding people who are bilingual in Spanish and English is not the top priority of the task force. There are language barriers with other groups as well, Parks said.

"(There's) German, Japanese, French ... Indian and Korean. There are at least three children at my daughter's school that speak Russian," Parks said.

For now, she said, it might be best for those who can't speak English to bring some help.

Some say that's not the best solution.

Hilton Head Island resident Tung Nguyen, who was at the department's Bluffton branch recently, said he thought interpreters should be supplied by the department.

"A lot of minorities don't speak English well," the 20-year-old said. "A lot of them just came to America. Some are Hispanic, some Asian, all kinds. Even French ... They need someone to explain to them what's going on."

But island resident Wilmer Torres sees the issue differently.

Torres, who came from Honduras about six years ago, speaks broken English. But he said his broken English is better than most of his friends'. He estimates he's been at the Bluffton office "100 times," interpreting for friends and sometimes, friends of friends.

Torres recently was at the Bluffton branch helping a friend explain a mistake in his car title. They waited in line for about an hour, but even with the language barrier, got out as quickly as native English speakers.

"(We) don't get angry," about the DMV not having an English interpreter, Torres said. "We came here, so we have to learn the language Americans speak. This is not a Spanish country."

So until the task force comes up with a solution, Torres and his friends will make do by themselves.

He'll keep interpreting and working on improving his English.

"It's hard," he said. "But you got to do it."