Endeavors of Re-Learning

“I’m feeling very nervous, but I guess there’s no more escaping from it anymore!” I told my colleague as we were headed to a seminar. “I think I’m not a good driver. My driving record back in India is neither long nor spotless” I continued. “You can do it, dear. Start afresh. It’s different here from that in India.”, she said as she sped at 180 km/hour in her Automatic SUV on a German ‘Autobahn’.

After 3 long years in Germany I finally registered for the driving license, once again. Yes, once again! First time when I applied, I did not pursue. Finally I gathered the courage to follow it through.

The driving school explained to me the whole process. There are 3 major steps: 1. Application 2. Theory Exam & 3. Practical exam. I needed a First-aid course, an eye test, translation of Indian driving license into German, etc. before I could even apply for Driving license. After gathering the required documents, I finally applied for the German driving license.

The next step was to prepare for the theory exam. The school gave me an online learning programme to prepare. Oh dear lord, there was so much to learn. There were around 1400 questions out of which 30 would be asked in the theory exam. The learning app did a good job to prepare me. It covered not only the questions but also the theory & logic behind it. The app allowed me to practice questions by topic, by type of question (video, picture, text, etc.), by difficulty level. It marked the questions & areas that I found tough & helped me practice them. The theory behind those questions was explained in the form of text, pictures, real-life examples, visuals, videos, etc. Then there was a practice section and also exam simulation section. Plus there were helpful links. They came in handy especially when I needed more explanation to understand a concept or its real-life significance. The theory exam works on the negative points system. For every wrong answer, you get between 1 to 5 negative points. To pass the exam, one must ensure not more than 10 negative points. I got Zero negative - No Mistakes!!! I was elated.

With such a good exam results, I was all-the-more excited to start practicing driving. Luckily my trainer had an empty time-slot the very next day. “I’d start afresh”, I told myself as I walked to our meeting place!! I was determined to overcome my fears. My trainer, Mandie, was a charming lady. I decided to lower the stakes by admitting to poor driving skills, experience, and record. She said rather non-judgmentally, “Don’t worry, You’ll be a good one.” Later she told me that the people who recognize their weaknesses are the ones who can quickly overcome them!!

As I sat in the driver’s seat for the first time in ages, that too in a foreign land in a car with completely contrariwise placed controls, I had butterflies in my stomach. She explained to me the main controls in legs - clutch, gear change, and in hands - signaling the turning, switching wipers, etc. As I was set out to drive on a road, I was faced with a lot of tasks. Here came the red signal and I just leave the clutch!! I had to start the engine again as the signal turns green and had to make a sharp 90° turn to the right. While I was executing it and trying my best to adhere to the lane, “gear up”, said Mandie. Immediately, I change the gear... But, wait; did I forget to press the clutch?? With me looking at my gear stick rather than the road ahead, Mandie saves the turn! I feel so foolish now, looking back at it! But Mandie didn’t make me feel that way at that time. Moreover, I was so very engrossed in maneuvering my vehicle, I hardly had time to ‘feel’ things! Initially, driving seemed very intimidating!!

I respect Mandie for being a wonderful person and trainer that she was. She taught me more than just driving. Mandie had the know-how of the roads and routes in and around Aalen. She also had a very good understanding of how the human brain works. She judged the skills that I already had and built gently up on it. She made sure I didn’t feel stupid or stuck. She must have learned quite a bit of psychology either to prepare for or as a result of teaching. She understood my feelings, thoughts, and expectations without having to speak them, sometimes! Other times, by the time I gathered German words to express, she had already got the point!! She always kept the mood light with her humor. She would snap at bystanders ‘standing incorrectly’, people crossing the roads without zebra crossing or over the signals. Drivers across the world seem to curse pedestrians for their inattentiveness and carelessness! I find it amazing how she made fun of me without hurting my feelings! In fact, this very jovial nature of hers made the driving seem more fun. Moreover, I could understand her wits in German; isn’t that cool! She had enormous patience to explain things over and over again until I could implement them to show my understanding. She was always energized, yet calm and composed.

My confidence started building up with more and regular practice. Moreover, she would put me in different kinds of situations every day. We drove in the pedestrian zone with walking pace and also on the highway with 100kms/hr. We drove on narrow, calm, hilly roads as well as on multi-lane, high traffic city roads. I had to recognize and observe different traffic rules, road signs, traffic lights, pedestrians, cyclists, other vehicles, their pace, etc. There were also deeper things to learn about like, shoulder-blick, right-of-way, observations by left-turn, deciding moment of yellow-traffic light, etc.

The practical exam was the final hurdle. Initial 10 minutes were quite stressful. I had a hard time understanding his instructions, especially the German names for the car-controls (e.g. Nebelscheinwerfer is a fog light!). I turned to Mandie in a desperate search for English words for the controls. The examiner kind of scolded me for talking to Mandie. My mind started racing - will he throw me out of the exam? He told me to ask him directly, not Mandie. All she was allowed to say was: “deep breaths”. She must have said it a hundred times during the course of the exam. Then the examiner asked me to start driving and stay in the lane. It was straight-going lane. So I changed the lane ahead as it became left-turning lane. He snapped at me telling me not to change lanes without asking him. Oh God! That gave me heebie-jeebies. I thought to myself, “I can’t afford to make another mistake; no way!” I pulled myself together and focussed on driving well rather than on passing the test. The tasks I had to perform were: city-driving, reacting to traffic lights (e.g. amber light), driving on a highway, parking parallel to the street, turning around, emergency braking, roundabouts, passing the bus/bus-stop, behaviour towards pedestrians and cyclists, turning left without traffic lights and giving way etc. I sustained the whole 40 minutes and was back at the starting point. The examiner started explaining his evaluation of my driving test. He mentioned that I was good at indicating and was observant while driving. He said I executed assigned tasks with sufficient efficiency. He pointed out some mistakes out and suggested improvements, saying that those were minor ones. Finally, he said, “Overall, you pass the test.” That was music to my ears!!

It was a tough and extensive exam. But, all’s well that ends well.

As I had started my endeavor, I had thought that the process is unnecessarily lengthy. In retrospect, I can understand the importance of a thorough process. At every stage, there is an effort to make you a responsible driver. The learning material was made interesting and exams were made tougher to make sure that the people take things seriously. Moreover, it also seems fair now that an Indian license holder has to go through the process as good as a beginner.

Throughout the process Mandie kept motivating me to do better and learn from my mistakes rather than feeling bad about them. This has helped me to date. When I sit in the driver’s seat, I can calm myself down and focus on driving. Recently I even started humming and singing while driving in traffic hours. To achieve the goal one has to believe in oneself, Madie helped me build my confidence. As I started driving independently I started feeling empowered, in a way. After around a couple of months of independent driving, my 2.5 years old son said, “Baba drives better than you do.” Oh, Men will be men!!

By 

Amruta Joshi Kane

Aalen, Germany