Teaching someone to drive is really damn scary.

[fuzzybabybunny]

Lemme guess: her "pro" instructor is also Asian? probably just learned how to drive last year? And taught themselves?

I know you and I live in the same area, relatively, so I'm going to tell you what I've learned over the last couple of years.

This area, especially in East Bay, is basically 90% Asian/Indian people. A great, great deal of them are newly-arrived students, postdocs, family, immigrants, whatever.

I never understood the "Asian driver" stereotype until moving out here. What I have learned, and how I have explained this to myself, is that it certainly isn't a race thing--it's obviously not genetic. My theory is that for many of these people, they come from countries and regions where for generations, no one owned a car, and many of them still don't. The older people are only now learning how to drive, and of course this tends ot make things worse, for various reasons. They come from places where there are no rules--whether it be on the roads or as pedestrians in regular commerce. A line (queue); the concept of "waiting your turn?" lmao. not gonna happen.

So, what happens here, is that people of various generations from these regions move over here, have to learn how to drive, and have very little resources and experience behind them. From working with a lot of such immigrants, it seems to me that they are also a bit insular--easy when you have a very large, established population of your culture waiting for you on this side.

Now--I know a few Chinese people, about the age of your roommate, also needing to learn how to drive, never having driven before. After taking a few private lessons from another "pro" Chinese individual, it is typical to fail the test a few times. One colleague, after his 3rd failed test, went to another DMV--in Hayward. Apparently, it is heavily-traded info within the Chinese community here that one must go to the Hayward DMV to pass your driving test. it seems to hold true, as these people get their licenses, despite the continuing penchant for driving the wrong way on one way streets, merging into oncoming traffic without the slightest hesitation, parking sideways along a sidewalk.

Also, it appears that the "rule" here is that U-Turns (oddly, the most common driving maneuver) do not need to yield for anyone, ever.

It is quite the circus on our streets over here.

Dammit, yeah, her instructor is going to be a Chinese person. In fact he just left her a voicemail saying that he has to reschedule her appointment because his student got into an accident and his car needs to get fixed.

BUT she simply doesn't have the money to pay someone like $60/hr for lessons. Any good quality alternatives? I'd much rather she get proper instruction now instead of cheap out, have to go to the DMV over and over to pass, and then proceed to kill someone.