My Driving Journey: The "Professional" Instructor Who Wasn't Quite Right
I thought a professional, experienced instructor would solve everything, but these lessons showed me why the teaching style matters even more.
In my last update, I mentioned trying out six instructors and finally picking one who seemed professional and friendly. At first, I had high hopes, but things did not go the way I imagined.
Lesson 2: Hitting the Main Roads for the First Time
My hands were sweating on the steering wheel. One moment I'd forget to brake, the next I'd miss seeing the traffic lights. My instructor would shout things like, "Don't be afraid of the cars next to you... why are you dodging them?!" or "It's a red light, why aren't you braking?!" I seriously had no awareness and was so overwhelmed just trying to handle the basic operations. I just did what I was told, feeling like a puppet simply following commands.
Lesson 3: Attempting Head-In Parking
"You're too late!" "You should be straightening up now!" "Turn faster!" I followed the instructor's directions, slowly turning the wheel, slowly straightening it back. After an hour of this, I actually felt pretty good about it.
Later, I realized that parking should never be learned so early, nor should so much time be spent on it. I should have been focusing on basic driving skills. Besides, I didn't even have my own car yet, so practicing parking was pretty useless. I'd have to rely on watching videos and practicing on my own later.
Lesson 4: Frustration Levels Rising
My dislike for this instructor really escalated during this lesson. It's that feeling when you're already super flustered, and someone keeps talking, keeps reminding you: "Earlier!" "Straighten up quickly!" "Look in the mirror!" Sometimes he'd even joke, "Are you trying to make me earn more money?" It got to the point where my brain could only focus on his words, making it impossible to concentrate on my driving. After every lesson, it felt like I was giving all the learned knowledge back to the instructor. I've always been someone who struggles to express discomfort, but I kept telling myself, "Maybe I'm too sensitive, maybe I'm just too bad at this."
Lesson 5: The Breaking Point
The instructor was still talking a lot, constantly nitpicking every little thing. The most frustrating part? At least twice every lesson, he'd make me do "pull over to the side" just to give me a long lecture about all my issues. I kept thinking, "I know all this! I just need more practice, not more talking."
This was when the thought of buying my own car really popped into my head. All these little issues of mine, I needed to practice them myself. In his 90-minute lessons, I didn't feel like I was practicing for 90 minutes; I felt like I was being talked at for 90 minutes.
If you want to see what happened next, I wrote about the breaking point with this instructor and later, how we bought a second-hand car in Melbourne with no car knowledge.
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