“You’ve done well. Keep it up. Now, at the traffic light, turn right,” said my driving instructor in my most recent lesson, which marked the 70th hour of my learning to drive in the UK.
As many Hong Kongers like to say when living abroad, “If you don’t have a car, it’s like you are losing your ability to walk” (唔識揸車等於無咗對腳). Learning to drive was at the top of my to-do list when I moved from Hong Kong to the UK last year.
I wasn’t the first of my friend group to arrive in the UK in this wave of immigration. Several of my Hong Kong mates had emigrated as soon as the BN(O) visa came into effect in 2021. I had the advantage of learning from their bumpy rides how to get a driving licence.
Yet, like going to a meal after reading the restaurant reviews, even if you are prepared for what will happen, experiencing it first-hand still opens your eyes to how different things can be when you are new to a place.
I was taken aback from the start. How could getting an instructor be so difficult? I must have reached out to 20 driving schools and individual instructors, only to keep receiving the same responses: “there’s no available instructor in your area,” or, “I have no availability at the moment.” Joining the waiting list was futile, as there was never a follow-up. As a Hong Konger used to efficient service, waiting without a clear timeline wasn’t in my vocabulary. But now, I could only wait.
After two months – short compared to the nine months a Reddit user said online they had waited – an instructor finally became available. According to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) guidelines, learners must master 27 skills to pass the driving test. My progress was at snail’s pace.
The “right” lane became my nemesis. In the UK, drivers should stick to the left lane unless overtaking. But then there are the exceptions that my driving instruction seemed to be constantly pointing out – “because there are usually parked cars on the left”, or “because there is a bus lane ahead” – and I would invariably get wrong.
Determined to improve the situation, I started watching YouTube videos to familiarise myself with my test route and rehearse the driving in my head before every lesson. Sometimes, I had good days when I made fewer mistakes, and I would treat myself to a bag of Walkers crisps and a carton of Vitasoy soybean milk, a comforting Hong Kong beverage, to celebrate the small victory.
But when I had bad days, I couldn’t help but doubt whether I would ever succeed. I would also wonder, what if I were driving in Causeway Bay? Would things be more manageable?
My driving test is in two weeks’ time. Will I pass? I don’t know. But it has been an eye-opening experience. It has been two steps forward and one step back, forcing me to adjust my expectations, not unlike in other aspects of my new life in the UK.
While I was initially exhausted with the emotional roller coaster, I gradually realised this was an inevitable phase and that what was important was that I was making progress. The lessons might have been about driving, but they turned out to have taught me so much more than just signalling and the four manoeuvres.
