Driving's fun. Very fun indeed. And very scary. Even more scary than sitting on rollercoasters but... it's a different sort of fear. You're afraid you'd fall off while riding a coaster whereas when you drive, you're afraid you'd damage the instructor's car or worse still crash horrifically. Well, there're many fears in driving. Too many to think of. You're afraid of stalling the car, afraid of holding the traffic on a single lane road during peak hours in the morning when people are rushing to work. Afraid they'll curse and swear at you, afraid they'll label you a "stupid learner", "newbie who stalls cars", "unintentional road hog"... whatever.
Situation 1
Instructor:"Huan ya (gear), an yu (step the accelerator)."
I don't say anything for fear of saying something I don't mean. I just do as he says. Traffic light turns red.
Instructor:"Fang yu, (release accelerator), gear fang kosong (shift gear stick into neutral), an brake."
Did so. Light beginning to turn green soon.
Instructor:"An clut (step the cluTCH he means), gear fang yi hao (change to first gear), an yu. Ran hou clut man man fang (then slowly release the cluTCH not clut mr instructor)."
Did so. And my car moved off...until it reached a pedestrain crossing. Piece of shit. I'd have to go over the process again.
I looked into the rear view mirror and swore in the language the instructor could understand. He looked at me amused. I tried to produce the stuff I did at the previous stop but couldn't. The car spluttered and stalled in disagreement of my sequence of steps. Damned, I tried again but my stupid feet couldn't stop trembling. Hence, the car couldn't get into gear so it died again. By now the number of cars behind mine were increasing by the second.
The instructor, now realizing my fear, "Bu yao guan qi ta de (don't give a shit about the others), ni jia ni de (just drive)."
That certainly relieved some stress. The third time was good and I quickly moved over to allow the cars behind me to move along.
Situation 2
Left turn ahead. I signal left, look into the rear and side mirrors and check my blind spot. Hurray! Well done Jerry! You nailed it! Marvellous stuff. Car about to U-turn into my path ahead. I start to brake but I hear a
"bu yao an brake, kao lu juan (don't hit the brakes, turn according to the road.)"
I do so. Then the idiot car U-turned at speed right into my lane. TMD. I thought I'd show him who's the ah beng driver so I stepped the accelerator to try to get ahead of him. The instructor felt danger immediately just as the thought flashed through so he yanked the handbrake.