driving lessons

[ms_jinga_lala 0]

When my fiancee gets here, I have to teach him how to drive like an American. He's never driven over 40km an hour, here we can drive 120 easily. He's only driven a manual car and he's used to driving on the opposite side of the car. He doesn't drive a car often as that is actually the slow way to travel in India lol.

My car is an automatic, about three times the size of his car at home and I live in the jungle as he calls it. I have to get on the interstate or take some back roads I fear would be much scarier for him hahaha....maybe this really is the jungle. I've thought about taking him to a parking lot after closing, down some of the lesser traveled roads and such just till he gets used to the car and the different driving regulations. However I would really like to hear some tips from people who have moved to the states and had to learn all these strict driving rules. (I can't wait to hear him fussing about the questions about farm vehicles on our driving test lol, that is going to be interesting because here he has to know that stuff.) Were there any tips that someone told you that you found particularly helpful? How long did you study the driving manual before you went for the test? Any useful study tips?

I would also love to hear your stories about learning to drive here.

Thanks in advance!!

[john & jean 37]

When my fiancee gets here, I have to teach him how to drive like an American. He's never driven over 40km an hour, here we can drive 120 easily. He's only driven a manual car and he's used to driving on the opposite side of the car. He doesn't drive a car often as that is actually the slow way to travel in India lol.

My car is an automatic, about three times the size of his car at home and I live in the jungle as he calls it. I have to get on the interstate or take some back roads I fear would be much scarier for him hahaha....maybe this really is the jungle. I've thought about taking him to a parking lot after closing, down some of the lesser traveled roads and such just till he gets used to the car and the different driving regulations. However I would really like to hear some tips from people who have moved to the states and had to learn all these strict driving rules. (I can't wait to hear him fussing about the questions about farm vehicles on our driving test lol, that is going to be interesting because here he has to know that stuff.) Were there any tips that someone told you that you found particularly helpful? How long did you study the driving manual before you went for the test? Any useful study tips?

I would also love to hear your stories about learning to drive here.

Thanks in advance!!

start him out on a riding lawnmower then a gocart track and oh, PRAY A LOT

[k.loveh 0]

When my fiancee gets here, I have to teach him how to drive like an American. He's never driven over 40km an hour, here we can drive 120 easily. He's only driven a manual car and he's used to driving on the opposite side of the car. He doesn't drive a car often as that is actually the slow way to travel in India lol.

My car is an automatic, about three times the size of his car at home and I live in the jungle as he calls it. I have to get on the interstate or take some back roads I fear would be much scarier for him hahaha....maybe this really is the jungle. I've thought about taking him to a parking lot after closing, down some of the lesser traveled roads and such just till he gets used to the car and the different driving regulations. However I would really like to hear some tips from people who have moved to the states and had to learn all these strict driving rules. (I can't wait to hear him fussing about the questions about farm vehicles on our driving test lol, that is going to be interesting because here he has to know that stuff.) Were there any tips that someone told you that you found particularly helpful? How long did you study the driving manual before you went for the test? Any useful study tips?

I would also love to hear your stories about learning to drive here.

Thanks in advance!!

I think this is great post! I'm going to be watching this one.

[ELW 5]

I can't face teaching my hubby to drive here, especially in my one and only car! Finally after two years of taking the bus and having me drive him around, he is ready to learn and is taking driving lessons for $65 an hour at a local driving school. He had his first lesson on Friday and the instructor said, "You really know NOTHING about driving!" (He had previously taken some lessons in India but as we know, that is a completely different situation.) After a couple more lessons I might trust him enough to take him to vacant parking lots to practice in my car. Whether American teenagers or Indians who never drove before, it is a nerve-wracking experience for sure! I will give more reports as he progresses, if this thread doesn't get buried.

[ms_jinga_lala 0]

I'll try not to let it get buried then lol. I did start teaching my 15 year old to drive before he went to stay with his dad. I actually took that pretty well, I didn't freak out but once when he was turning the car around and was way too close to the mailboxes and when I said....well screamed...STOP, he kept going lol. OMG..... After I thought about it, it would have just been some paint scraped off but still...my car is so pretty with all it's paint lol.

I'm really concerned about teaching him things like how to judge if your car is between the lines, how to check your side and rear mirrors, and in the state of NC he needs to know how fast he can drive a tractor down the road (I almost failed for missing that one myself lol).

I'm really kind of excited about teaching him to drive. I think he's gonna love it once he gets used to it. And I really feel like driving here, even with all the rules is going to be easier than India. He doesn't have to stop and go while people just walk out in front of your car and traffic is nowhere near as bad. Traffic only goes one direction in any given place on the road, not all directions at once. I'll make sure I come back and post our experiences too.

[Moksha 1]

Hello ,

I guess the question is , does he know how to drive ? B, How comfortable is he driving on high speed .

What i did was , I got a international Licence before i came here . And then I Just look very carefully while my wife drove me for a week or so . The first step would be getting comfortable driving on the other side . Its hard to get an idea of the clear distance and the lanes Ur driving from the other side . So make him comfortable to drive on the other side . I started driving with in the second week . What we did was in the second week I drove my wife to do grocery shopping and she would tell me advance what i need to do next , Like who have the right away and how yield . In fact she keep telling me the little thing like round way thing , meaning how to enter the round ways while she was driving me . Stop for school bus and pedestrian . all these little things did made a lots of difference for me understanding the driving difference .

Driving on the freeway is different ball game . Speed is very important . I almost got a ticket in the second month of me being here for speed he he . so advice o that part is stay under the speed limit .

The biggest difference was driving a bike here . Their is a lots of respect for bikers which is totally different here .

[ELW 5]

It is actually easier driving really slow in India and stopping all the time for the cows, pedestrians, donkeys, dogs etc. My hubby complains when I put on the breaks a long distance from the stop signs or stop lights - I tell him, you cannot just step down on the breaks a couple of feet away when we are going 40 mph! I think he will do OK though, once he gets into the habit. He only practiced in India a few driving classes and it is totally different in India as we all know - no rules, driving in the middle of the street and turning to one side when cars approach from the other side, stopping for buffalo and goat herds, manual transmission, driving on different side of the road etc., etc. He never drove more than 10mph in India I am sure.

[ms_jinga_lala 0]

Hello ,

I guess the question is , does he know how to drive ? B, How comfortable is he driving on high speed .

What i did was , I got a international Licence before i came here . And then I Just look very carefully while my wife drove me for a week or so . The first step would be getting comfortable driving on the other side . Its hard to get an idea of the clear distance and the lanes Ur driving from the other side . So make him comfortable to drive on the other side . I started driving with in the second week . What we did was in the second week I drove my wife to do grocery shopping and she would tell me advance what i need to do next , Like who have the right away and how yield . In fact she keep telling me the little thing like round way thing , meaning how to enter the round ways while she was driving me . Stop for school bus and pedestrian . all these little things did made a lots of difference for me understanding the driving difference .

Driving on the freeway is different ball game . Speed is very important . I almost got a ticket in the second month of me being here for speed he he . so advice o that part is stay under the speed limit .

The biggest difference was driving a bike here . Their is a lots of respect for bikers which is totally different here .

I'm going to err on the side of caution and say no, he doesn't know how to drive. He's probably only done it once, not very far and since he gets nervous I know he had someone else take over. He recently went for driving lessons - for 2 days....in India. He was very happy to hear that that my car does not have a clutch pedal. I learned how to drive a manual and I actually don't think he did bad at all from the things he was telling me. He's very critical of himself.

Thank you for telling me your story. I find it quite helpful. I've already been looking around at where I can get him some short distance experience to help boost his comfort level. And I think I'm going to teach him about cruise control first lol.

[ms_jinga_lala 0]

It is actually easier driving really slow in India and stopping all the time for the cows, pedestrians, donkeys, dogs etc. My hubby complains when I put on the breaks a long distance from the stop signs or stop lights - I tell him, you cannot just step down on the breaks a couple of feet away when we are going 40 mph! I think he will do OK though, once he gets into the habit. He only practiced in India a few driving classes and it is totally different in India as we all know - no rules, driving in the middle of the street and turning to one side when cars approach from the other side, stopping for buffalo and goat herds, manual transmission, driving on different side of the road etc., etc. He never drove more than 10mph in India I am sure.

Lol, that actually scared me while I was there. People just stepping in front of the cars like they weren't there. Not sure why it scared me, we were moving so slow they probably wouldn't even have gotten bruised if we hit them lol. I guess it was just the thought of it. I did have a scooter hit my leg while riding on the back of his motorcycle. It didn't even hurt but was nerve wracking. I guess he's going to feel similar but for different reasons. I know he thinks my car is huge (I drive an HHR lol). I definitely will be teaching him the art of reverse driving in an empty parking lot in the middle of the night lol.

[Arun+Catie 1]

hey guys for me it was fun to driving here, when i got here i told my wife that i want to driving and she was really scared about that. finally we went to USF university parking and practice over there and it was fun. I started driving my own after a week. and than a month later i had my driving license. The most scare part for me was every thing is on other side of the road and a rules are totally different. But it was fun.

Advise: Practice turns as many time as you can. that's the key to drive here. In india left turn is free and here is right turn. but we all drive in straight line, hahaha

Arun

Edited October 7, 2009 by Arun+Catie

[champi 13]

We're right now work-in-progress... My hubby had taken about 15-20 driving lessons in India just to get hang of controlling steering and stuff. He said, the traffic was so bad, that in 30mins session, he could barely pass couple of stoplights before the sessions were over. On the bright side, he got hang of crazy traffic during those sessions, which is pretty common here... He was still nervous about learning how to drive here.. just like you'll said, driving in opposite direction...

@ms_jinga_lala - my hubby was also glad to know that there is no clutch thing here...

Anyway, we started off with a big empty parking lot just like most of you here (these days, with stores and stuff going out of business, finding one was really easy). Then my dad helped him get on the interstate... He has gotten pretty good with local roads and turns and also reverse. He still needs lots of practice on parking and left turns..... luckily, he's not driving my one and only car... my dad let us borrow his old car..

We've been bit lazy about him getting license yet though since he started working. We get no time in weekdays and very little in weekend with all the festivals going on and get together in weekends and stuff. We just got an insurance policy (required before we go for license test). Hopefully, we'll be able to practice some more in coming weeks and have a license in had maybe end of this month or early next month....

It's really nice to hear all the driving learning stories.... My hubby works in downtown and I will be so scared to let my hubby drive alone all by himself to work, downtown is not the ideal place for new driver.... Luckily, right now, our workplaces are only few miles apart so we're able to ride together..

[CTRL+ALT+DEL 1]

rather then teaching your SO how ot drive, give them the confidence by hiring a private driving instructor. they'll bring their own special car with breaks on the passenger side as well and teach with confidence. obviously, you can take your SO for a spin in your local rural residential area or shopping mall or roads at night when fewer cars are there. new drivers should be well coached for atleast 500 miles, including highway driving, night driving, rain/snow driving. and don't forgte to show how to change your tire, check for air, fuel, etc .

[Nina~ 431]

new drivers should be well coached for atleast 500 miles, including highway driving, night driving, rain/snow driving. and don't forgte to show how to change your tire, check for air, fuel, etc .

I totally agree with that.

[ms_jinga_lala 0]

and don't forgte to show how to change your tire, check for air, fuel, etc .

Omg....I don't know how to do that lol...wait...I do....I drive it to the Chevy dealership or call roadside assistance lol. Thank God for OnStar! I can teach him how to push a button, yay me!

Thank you Arun and Champi and CTRL+ALT+DEL for your stories and ideas.

[champi 13]

and don't forgte to show how to change your tire, check for air, fuel, etc .

Omg....I don't know how to do that lol...wait...I do....I drive it to the Chevy dealership or call roadside assistance lol. Thank God for OnStar! I can teach him how to push a button, yay me!

Thank you Arun and Champi and CTRL+ALT+DEL for your stories and ideas.

I got AAA gold membership, free tire change, free towing for 100miles, and lots of other good perks at no extra charge except the membership fee...well worth the money..