Driving Miss Ashley Part 3 - the video marathon and a job more frustrating than mine
I had been warned to be prepared for a long tedious day at the driving school, so I packed accordingly.
I had a thermos full of coffee, snacks, driving books lent to me, my journal, even stationary to start a letter I'd been meaning to write.
The room was pretty basic with desks and a tv monitor and a wite board up front. I was told some videos would have subtitles in English so I got a seat up front so I would be able to read them when they came up. Once everyone was finally assembled and a seat was found for them the finger print check in process started. Pretty straightforward ; click on your name and press your left thumb down to confirm your identity. With 40 odd people though it took rather a long time.
As we got checked in we could pick up some forms and a practice written test. In between videos the instructor would call out the answers for various questions and demonstrate finer points of intersections and right of way on the white board. I have to say if I had spoken Korean, I would have found it very informative.
After some technicdal glitches and a flash player update the videos were ready to roll out. The first two had subtitles and were actually rather useful. They detailed the whole licensing procedure and what our options were if we failed a test. People paid attention and more or less looked alert.
As the hours and videos grinded on I noticed one by one people nodding off, playing on their phones or who knows what. I skimmed through my books and started in on my letter. I struggled not to laugh as one video demonstrated dirving offenses. A car drove through a red light and the scene froze and one heard police sirens. I see people run red lights all the time, actually if one truly did slow down at a yellow light and stopped dead at a red, they would most likely be rear-ended by the next driver. Also, I've never actually seen any traffice police enforcing speed limits, light signals or even giving out parking tickets for parking across an intersection.
I looked at the instructor, does she think it's a joke too? Does she hope inside her heart that THIS batch of students will be the ones to become good drivers? That this group won't run red lights and make unsafe lane changes. Or does she not kid herself?
Suddenly I had an epiphany.
English teachers often gripe about how they don't get enough time with students, classes are too large, the textbook too irrelevant etc. It's a frustrating job a lot of the time.
But being a driving instructor must be worse.
A handful of hours in a car on a specific course doesn't give drivers enough practice in all conditions. The instructor can lecture about obeying all traffic laws, but there is no enforcement, and so no inscentive to obey them. No property is damaged and no one dies when students incorrectly use simple past tense. (at least not usually) But being a bad driver can be damn dangerous.
Being a driving school teacher has got to be the worst job in Korea.
I had a thermos full of coffee, snacks, driving books lent to me, my journal, even stationary to start a letter I'd been meaning to write.
The room was pretty basic with desks and a tv monitor and a wite board up front. I was told some videos would have subtitles in English so I got a seat up front so I would be able to read them when they came up. Once everyone was finally assembled and a seat was found for them the finger print check in process started. Pretty straightforward ; click on your name and press your left thumb down to confirm your identity. With 40 odd people though it took rather a long time.
As we got checked in we could pick up some forms and a practice written test. In between videos the instructor would call out the answers for various questions and demonstrate finer points of intersections and right of way on the white board. I have to say if I had spoken Korean, I would have found it very informative.
After some technicdal glitches and a flash player update the videos were ready to roll out. The first two had subtitles and were actually rather useful. They detailed the whole licensing procedure and what our options were if we failed a test. People paid attention and more or less looked alert.
As the hours and videos grinded on I noticed one by one people nodding off, playing on their phones or who knows what. I skimmed through my books and started in on my letter. I struggled not to laugh as one video demonstrated dirving offenses. A car drove through a red light and the scene froze and one heard police sirens. I see people run red lights all the time, actually if one truly did slow down at a yellow light and stopped dead at a red, they would most likely be rear-ended by the next driver. Also, I've never actually seen any traffice police enforcing speed limits, light signals or even giving out parking tickets for parking across an intersection.
I looked at the instructor, does she think it's a joke too? Does she hope inside her heart that THIS batch of students will be the ones to become good drivers? That this group won't run red lights and make unsafe lane changes. Or does she not kid herself?
Suddenly I had an epiphany.
English teachers often gripe about how they don't get enough time with students, classes are too large, the textbook too irrelevant etc. It's a frustrating job a lot of the time.
But being a driving instructor must be worse.
A handful of hours in a car on a specific course doesn't give drivers enough practice in all conditions. The instructor can lecture about obeying all traffic laws, but there is no enforcement, and so no inscentive to obey them. No property is damaged and no one dies when students incorrectly use simple past tense. (at least not usually) But being a bad driver can be damn dangerous.
Being a driving school teacher has got to be the worst job in Korea.