Champions League Begins!!!!!

[jazzypom]

Comments

Re: stop, stop, stop

[lied_ohne_worte]

I found the theory not hard at all... but I was always top of the class, and it was of course easier for me. I had massive trouble with the driving part of learning to drive, heh. As the vast majority of Germans manage to take their license, it should be doable. There was a young man with some learning disability or similar in my driving class, who did the practical training and exam on an automatic (resulting in a license that does not allow you to drive a manual transmission), because apparently he had issues with coordinating everything during driving. I think he passed the theoretical test. It's really all rote-remembering, there aren't any questions that don't appear in the study material.

You need to do the theory test before the practical.

Apparently, Reus just wasn't interested in studying, as the article puts it. He left school with the lowest of the three exams you can take in our three-tiered school system. I suspect, what with being a professional footballer, he just didn't put any work in. And it also seems he got into bad company, and someone just suggested he could "help him" with that forged license. Seems those very young footballers just attract hangers-on like that.

Really, from reading that article, it seems he was incredibly immature while having more money than is good for a person and moving in an environment where a ridiculous car defines a man's success and where you get the impression you can do what you like. Not a good combination.

And while the Dortmund stance judging by the article is apparently "we aren't there to be our players' mother", I really think they should change their attitude, as apparently not all their young men can be trusted to behave like adults yet, eighteen or not.

Re: stop, stop, stop

[jazzypom]

To be fair, a football club doesn't really have to ask their charges if they got their driver's licences or not. I'm with the clubs on that one. It's one thing say, making courses on financial education mandatory (I'd do that if it were up to me, tbh. Even if it's just "Read everything that comes in front of you, and don't sign unless you understand!"), or have rules about dress (for instance, in the USA's NBA, baskeball players had to wear suits once they were on company business instead of casual dress) but driver's licence?

It would be excusable if he were poor and couldn't afford a licence but needed a car for work (I'd side eye, but not so heavily), but Reus is young, and once he started playing football even in the academy to first team prospect, he'd have gotten paid (over here, I think players in some academies get £800 a week, then to break into first team wages, like Harry Kane did, they'd get about £7k a week). Not saying that the BundLi players will be swinging that, but seriously, it's not as if he's poor. Now he's paying massive fines for something that would have cost him a fraction of the cost.

I'm sure Reus will have learned from this. Glad that he extended his time with Dortmund, next focus - licence.

Is there a minimum amount of hours that you can do on the test? I know in Portugual for example, it's mandated that you do around 40 hours (including theory and practice- I think it's 40 hours, but I remember inquiring about that six years ago for reasons). Is it the same in Germany?

Re: stop, stop, stop

[lied_ohne_worte]

Mhm, I don't mean the license in particular, more trying to keep an eye on what goes on around their players, shady hangers-on who con them out of their money etc.. But I guess that's hard to do, and also something their agents should help with normally.

In the theoretical test, you need to have a mandatory amount of lessons, and certain modules - so you don't, say, hear one thing three times and another not at all if a driving school has several courses.

In the practical education, there is a very low minimum number. You need to have lessons on the Autobahn, at night, and driving over-land on bigger roads. Some people manage with few more lessons than those, usually the ones who have some experience beforehand - legally and accompanied on a marked driving practice range, illegally but usually tolerated by society on an empty parking lot or a track in the fields, or illegally and not-so-tolerated driving on the roads.

I had only tried the second option with my father, and it didn't work at all, because he didn't keep his nerve when I was swerving off the track. And as I was really very bad particularly in judging where I was on the road in a left-right orientation (either almost on the curb or almost on the other side of the middle line), I needed lots and lots of lessons.

Re: stop, stop, stop

[blackjedii]

waiit there's a separate school / training for manual over automatic?

that's actually pretty awesome.

Re: stop, stop, stop

[jazzypom]

waiit there's a separate school / training for manual over automatic?

Similar in England. You can learn on an automatic and go for a test on an automatic, but if you have an automatic licence, you can't drive a stick. Whereas if you have a stick, you can drive both. I'm accustomed to a stick, so automatic was never on the cards for me.

RE: Re: stop, stop, stop

[blackjedii]

I never learned stick. Which is fine - it's not like I need to unless it was a dire emergency. My sister tried to teach me once in her Datsun but it was so old and leaking oil all I could focus on was the smell!

Re: stop, stop, stop

[lied_ohne_worte]

Not quite. The default is manual, because that's what people drive. I think automatic cars make up 10 percent maximum of cars here. I've never driven one, and I haven't sat in one (except perhaps a taxi) in... hm, twenty years at least. In people's minds, automatic cars are ´still associated with old people or people who aren't able to handle driving a normal car. Then there's the fact that automatic cars at least used to need more gas because they didn't switch gears at the best times, and they are also generally more expensive.

If someone isn't able to handle normal driving (as in a manual transmission), they can do their exam on an automatic car, but will not be allowed to legally drive a manual car with it. However, with a normal license you can also drive an automatic. So when buying a new car/getting a manual company car/being asked to drive someone somewhere in their car, the automatic license really limits you.

Not all driving schools will even have automatic cars - it's really only a last-ditch thing for people who might not otherwise pass. I wouldn't even have been aware of that option except for the young man who did his license that way, as all my schoolmates did the normal one. But even if someone wanted/had access to an automatic right at the start of their driving, it would still be wiser to do the normal license, as otherwise you've limited yourself forever or need to take another license later.

RE: Re: stop, stop, stop

[blackjedii]

fascinating. It's the opposite here - I'm reading up on it now and there's a real nosedive on the sale of manual transmissions. For me there's a lot to keep track of when I drive because I mentally count the cars all around me and whatnot so I think it would be hard for me to convert to stick. And I'm all about bare bones basic Hondas so.. yeah.

Although from your perspective a manual would be bare bones basic? Cultural differences are interesting!!