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My first driving lesson
I had driven once before, in a car park, when I went to my first driving lesson. That was in spring 2019. Easy, I thought, you can work a clutch now. Not a chance. I found out the painful way that every car has a different biting point. And that in my Fahrlehrer’s (driving instructor’s) car I could not sense it from the faint vibrations the way I could in my boyfriend’s car. Stop, go. Stop, go. And so on. That was roughly how half of my first driving lesson looked. My frustration grew. My concentration dropped. I am not made for this, I told myself. Again, because I had never wanted to learn to drive in the first place. My parents did not own a car – and it had always frightened me. I did not want to have the power to end someone else’s life over one small mistake. Well, fine. Even so, there I was that day, sitting in the car and telling my instructor about that fear. He agreed with me: not every accident, not every disaster can be prevented. But if I stayed alert and never drove under the influence, he said, the risk would be minimal. Driving – that was exactly what I should be doing right now. From the car park we drove towards my flat. Suddenly pulling away went quite well. Only, once you are over that first hurdle, you have to change straight into second gear. I was out of my depth again and loudly shared my views on which car manufacturer had come up with this ridiculous idea. Swearing is part of it, a bit. That is fine, my instructor said. I got out. I was not really proud, more relieved to have it behind me. But it does get better. I promise.
You will find more in the blog article «First driving lesson».
Watch the video by driving instructor Nathalie from Frick and the video by driving instructor Ralph from Winterthur. They explain what matters on the road to your driving licence, what to look out for when choosing an instructor and at the driving test. If you are looking for an instructor yourself, have a look around the driving instructor comparison at todrive.ch.
Here is another entertaining video by SRF about the driving test and the road to your licence.