So.... how are the driving lessons going?

[Merle 458]

My wife had never had to drive in her life when she arrived in the U.S. Luckily she was able to find a job that is only a ten minute walk from our house. She eventually wanted to have her own car so we signed her up at a driving school. She saved up and bought her own car while she was learning. It took her a loooooooong time to be able to control the car. After many months of practice, she finally got her license. If my wife can do it, anyone can. Oh, and hello all. I haven't posted on here in ages.

[Merle 458]

My wife had never had to drive in her life when she arrived in the U.S. Luckily she was able to find a job that is only a ten minute walk from our house. She eventually wanted to have her own car so we signed her up at a driving school. She saved up and bought her own car while she was learning. It took her a loooooooong time to be able to control the car. After many months of practice, she finally got her license. If my wife can do it, anyone can. Oh, and hello all. I haven't posted on here in ages.

The day she got her license.

[peejay 327]

My wife had never had to drive in her life when she arrived in the U.S. Luckily she was able to find a job that is only a ten minute walk from our house. She eventually wanted to have her own car so we signed her up at a driving school. She saved up and bought her own car while she was learning. It took her a loooooooong time to be able to control the car. After many months of practice, she finally got her license. If my wife can do it, anyone can. Oh, and hello all. I haven't posted on here in ages.

Seattle has a large Russian community. One of my wife's favorite websites used to be Russian Seattle (http://www.russianseattle.com). She's real big on CorbinaTV now.

Is your wife very fluent in English? Was she highly fluent in English on arrival to the USA? Does Washington give the written test in Russian.

The point I'm trying to make is that some places in the USA are "Russian friendly" and others are not so. In Texas the written test is given only in English and Spanish. Everyone else is SOL and must hire an interpreter. Some states even have the driving handbook and written test printed in Russian to make the process easy and relatively painless.

Fortunately both my wife and stepdaughter were already highly fluent in English before arriving in the USA. Otherwise their getting Texas driver's licenses would not have been such a cakewalk. Ditto for employment opportunities.

I'm not denigrating your wife's accomplishments here in the USA. I'm just trying to point out that the USA is not uniform from state to state or city to city. Some locales are more "Russian friendly" than others. It is also safe to say that not everyone is equally motivated or progresses as fast as another person.

Not everyone's situation is the same. Different people are not the same either. It's not fair to compare Natasha in San Francisco, NYC, or Seattle to Svetlana in Nashville, Corpus Christi, or Baton Rouge. Not everyone's wife is fluent in English fresh off the airplane. Some of my wife's Russian speaking aquaintances and friends she has met here in Houston from various former USSR republics are at various stages in their assimilation. There are lots of factors at work. Location, motivation, age, education, confidence, etc. to mention just a few.

Best of luck to you and your wife. I'm glad all has worked out for both of you. Keep on posting your experiences.

[Merle 458]

Seattle has a large Russian community. One of my wife's favorite websites used to be Russian Seattle (http://www.russianseattle.com). She's real big on CorbinaTV now.

Is your wife very fluent in English? Was she highly fluent in English on arrival to the USA? Does Washington give the written test in Russian?

My wife spoke very little English before she came here. She is very good at languages though. English is her fourth language. They offered the test to her in Russian, but she chose to do it in English. I'll tell her about the website. Thanks!

[Turboguy 6]

I think for many of us teaching a Russian woman to drive is one of the most challenging things. I think part of why it seems so much harder for them than for Americans is that when Kids grow up in America they are driving a lot of things. There are so many toys that steer like a car, they ride bikes, they play with big wheels and 4 wheelers, they go the the amusement park and ride the dodgums and the Cadilac car rides and kids in Russia don't usually do that. Back in the stone ages I got my permit one week and took and passed my test the next week.

I would have been a lot better off reading the stuff they gave her myself as well because they talk a lot in the driving book about teaching someone to drive. My suggestion is to not just let her read it, read it yourself to, at least the part about teaching someone to drive.

The best advice here for someone begining the process is what Slim said about starting out in a big parking lot. I never thought about that and it cost me 5 grand. (the story is upthread if you missed it). Well we are maybe three months into the learning process with tons of time spent with her driving. The idea of her driving without me would still scare me to death. Yesterday she flew through a red light. She has a hard time with intersections that are three way stops. She misses stop signs sometimes and can't find her way anywhere. We were a block from home the other day and she did not know where she was. She confuses left and right. I think she could very easily turn onto a 4 lane divided highway pulling in the wrong way and find herself driving against traffic. The bad part is I think she could pass her test if I let her take it.

[Satellite 1]

The idea of her driving without me would still scare me to death. Yesterday she flew through a red light. She has a hard time with intersections that are three way stops. She misses stop signs sometimes and can't find her way anywhere. We were a block from home the other day and she did not know where she was. She confuses left and right. I think she could very easily turn onto a 4 lane divided highway pulling in the wrong way and find herself driving against traffic. The bad part is I think she could pass her test if I let her take it.

I hope her driving futilities are limited to driving. If everything in the world also comes this difficult to her, I pity you greatly.

[Merle 458]

Yesterday she flew through a red light. She has a hard time with intersections that are three way stops. She misses stop signs sometimes and can't find her way anywhere. We were a block from home the other day and she did not know where she was. She confuses left and right. I think she could very easily turn onto a 4 lane divided highway pulling in the wrong way and find herself driving against traffic.

Sounds about how my wife was. My suggestion is to take her to a driving school and not take all the stress yourself. I thought I could teach my wife to drive, but I would get so frustrated that I would make her mad and than she wouldn't want to drive anymore. I think it cost my wife about $300.

[Blues Fairy 0]

The idea of her driving without me would still scare me to death. Yesterday she flew through a red light. She has a hard time with intersections that are three way stops. She misses stop signs sometimes and can't find her way anywhere. We were a block from home the other day and she did not know where she was. She confuses left and right. I think she could very easily turn onto a 4 lane divided highway pulling in the wrong way and find herself driving against traffic. The bad part is I think she could pass her test if I let her take it.

As I remember from my own learning experience many years ago - as soon as you start driving independently, without someone sitting next to you and constantly telling you what to do and what not to do, your level of attention, awareness and ability to figure out things increases dramatically. Having a worried instructor at your side is a very distracting and unnerving thing, however kind and patient this instructor might be.

Just relax and let her drive. She'll improve, you'll see.

[slim 1,523]

Yesterday she flew through a red light. She has a hard time with intersections that are three way stops. She misses stop signs sometimes and can't find her way anywhere. We were a block from home the other day and she did not know where she was. She confuses left and right. I think she could very easily turn onto a 4 lane divided highway pulling in the wrong way and find herself driving against traffic.

Sounds about how my wife was. My suggestion is to take her to a driving school and not take all the stress yourself. I thought I could teach my wife to drive, but I would get so frustrated that I would make her mad and than she wouldn't want to drive anymore. I think it cost my wife about $300.

My wife actually drove better when she was mad. I don't know if it was to prove me wrong or if she just wasn't taking it seriously until she was angry, but once we would start yelling and get all stressed out, she whipped in and out of the cones like she'd done it her whole life.

That to me said she was concentrating too hard and thinking too much instead of letting the car go and simply just driving. You know, the fun part of driving, the kind they talk about in the Cadillac commercials. When she was "thinking" about which way to turn the wheel and how much gas to give it, she wasn't "feeling" it and thusly drove very poorly. After just letting go, she did much better. When I pointed it out to her, "See, when you're p!$$ed off you drive better!" she had to laugh and acknowledged that yes, she probably just needed to think about it less and just let it happen.

The idea of her driving without me would still scare me to death. Yesterday she flew through a red light. She has a hard time with intersections that are three way stops. She misses stop signs sometimes and can't find her way anywhere. We were a block from home the other day and she did not know where she was. She confuses left and right. I think she could very easily turn onto a 4 lane divided highway pulling in the wrong way and find herself driving against traffic. The bad part is I think she could pass her test if I let her take it.

As I remember from my own learning experience many years ago - as soon as you start driving independently, without someone sitting next to you and constantly telling you what to do and what not to do, your level of attention, awareness and ability to figure out things increases dramatically. Having a worried instructor at your side is a very distracting and unnerving thing, however kind and patient this instructor might be.

Just relax and let her drive. She'll improve, you'll see.

That's true. Scary, but true. My wife's only been driving on the streets by herself for about two weeks now and I still worry about her, but I know for her to get better I can't be there.

The best way for her to get practice at this is, once again, go to that big empty parking lot or back streets or wherever you can practice and get out of the car. Let her drive around for a while all by herself without you in the car. Once she improves in the parking lot, have her drive a few blocks on her own and then back to your location. I realized very quickly I was just going to have to let her go. Whenever I rode with her, I was so stressed out I couldn't even eat my Taco Bell. And that's sad for a fat man!

I've seen her progress already. I'm still worried, but I can't be there all the time, and I don't want to be! She'll be OK.

[Turboguy 6]

I can't really find driving lessons around here. There is a vague mention of AAA offering them somewhere but I think we are past that point.

Blues, I agree with you when there is not a worried instructor sitting by your side it does increase the alertness level. I think when there is no one to ask if you are doing it right you just think it out yourself better. Besides all that screaming when I think death is close, covering my eyes and her worrying if I am ok when I turn white as a ghost must take away from her concentration as well.

Well, we bought her a car yesterday. Haven't seen it yet. We are heading to Michigan tomorrow to pick it up. We have been watching Craigs list, Ebay, AutoTrader and cars.com for a while. I saw a car that would be perfect the other day. It was a rebuildable wreck with the front totally smashed but drivable. I told her we should get it for her and anyone seeing that car coming down the road would get off the road in fear and give her clear driving. We didn't buy it though. There were only a few cars she liked. Beetles, Hyundai Tiberon's Toyota Celicas and yesterday she added Cougars to the list so we got a Red Cougar. Hopefully the bright red color may help people see her when she goes through a red light or stop sign and may help a bit.

[slim 1,523]

I tried to get my wife a panel-van. She was having nothing of it. When we first started looking for a car all we had was $750. She said, "I will buy car for this 750 bucks." We got on E-Bay and I pulled up a $750 car. It was a rusted-out van with three or four different colors on all the different panels from where it'd been wrecked or rusted through and changed out. I could just picture her all "fashion-able" behind the wheel of that van.

She made a shrieking noise of some kind hissing sound and then next thing I knew she was talking about going to work or something....

We ended up with the Cobalt which is in the same family as the Couger, Tiburon, Celica, etc. I still worry about her having such a small car but they are relatively safe, I guess. I sure wish she would've bought that panel-van. Kind of like the car with the wrecked front, I'm sure people would've yielded to her, even if she was cruising through a red light.

Who knows, maybe this will make them concentrate more and drive even better. (And by the way, Pizza Tower is still open! I checked last weekend, the Mexican place is next door. So if you guys get "lost" on your way back home, stop by and grab a pie.)

[ronjie 0]

Anyone done driving lessons recently or have advice on how "not" to just forget about such nonsense?

Driving lessons is the first thing my wife did after I left to come back . I think its a great idea to pay for the lessons. I can think of a much better way to spend quality time with Jojie. besides, I just couldn't pass up the price..I think it would have cost at least 10 times more to learn here. who doesn't love a good deal. She now rents a vehicle maybe once or twice a month for an overnite trip to her hometown by the sea. its about a three hour drive and its great practice.. I must say, I am impressed. I know some of the places she drove and not even her older brothers chose that route. (DON SALVADOR MT ) hopefully she will be an expert by the time she is here driving our vehicles..LOL.

[Okiebollweevil 0]

I tried to get my wife a panel-van. She was having nothing of it. When we first started looking for a car all we had was $750. She said, "I will buy car for this 750 bucks." We got on E-Bay and I pulled up a $750 car. It was a rusted-out van with three or four different colors on all the different panels from where it'd been wrecked or rusted through and changed out. I could just picture her all "fashion-able" behind the wheel of that van.

She made a shrieking noise of some kind hissing sound and then next thing I knew she was talking about going to work or something....

We ended up with the Cobalt which is in the same family as the Couger, Tiburon, Celica, etc. I still worry about her having such a small car but they are relatively safe, I guess. I sure wish she would've bought that panel-van. Kind of like the car with the wrecked front, I'm sure people would've yielded to her, even if she was cruising through a red light.

Who knows, maybe this will make them concentrate more and drive even better. (And by the way, Pizza Tower is still open! I checked last weekend, the Mexican place is next door. So if you guys get "lost" on your way back home, stop by and grab a pie.)

I bought my wife a (shudder) new PT cruiser. Remember your first car and how you took care of it? Same way with her. She washes the car by hand, parks in the last parking space and at an angle to keep from getting car doored, and wouldn't trade it for an Escalade. She now wants to move up to a Rav 4, and I told her we would only buy it with no trade in, would keep the PT because of low trade-in and good gas mileage as opposed to my pickup. She really loves her little car and thankfully, no wrecks in 3+ years of driving, I still hate to ride with her though, and no sense of direction, none!

[akdiver 3]

M wife bought a (new) 2007 Chevy Aveo 5 for $8,000. They listed it as "the cheapest new car in America". Has a 5 star rating though, with side impact airbags standard. Spent $700 on studded tires (with wheels) though - but I think it's safe and it is perfect for a little in-town car, which is what she wanted. It's also a stick, which is ironic, because when I bought my Jeep, I got an automatic - mostly for her benefit. Oh well.

[Blues Fairy 0]

There were only a few cars she liked. Beetles, Hyundai Tiberon's Toyota Celicas and yesterday she added Cougars to the list so we got a Red Cougar.

A 6-cyl sports car for a new driver? You guys are crazy.