Hi guys, welcome back to English with Max. This video is going to be a little
different to what I normally do. Several of my followers have asked me to do some
videos in which I speak at my normal, "natural" speed, and I've also had some
requests for more advanced videos. So I'm going to do this video without a script
and I'm also going to try to do it without editing it.
However, I do have a few notes here so you will sometimes see me looking down. Now this
video is going to be about driving. I'll talk about driving in Australia, I'll talk
about getting your licence, I'll talk about me as a driver, and I'll also talk
about some of the annoying habits that people have on the road. Now this is a
video for advanced learners, so if you're a beginner or an intermediate learner
and you're finding it a bit difficult, you can turn on the subtitles.
I'll make proper subtitles for the video. I'll also put some vocabulary in the
description - so some of the terms and words that I use. Okay, so let's get
started. Let's talk about driving in Australia. Well, in Australia we drive on
the left-hand side of the road. In other words we drive on the "right" side. That
means that the driver's seat is on the right. Yes, we drive on the left, and the
driver's seat is on the right in the car. Now because this is a
civilised nation we have the metric system. We don't have the imperial system
anymore. Don't get offended about that, guys. People get so offended on the
internet. Um yeah... that's just a bit of tongue-in-cheek, okay? Because we have the
metric system, our speed limits are in kilometres per hour. The maximum speed
limit is 110, except in the Northern Territory where some places you can do
130. We do have some places where the speed limit is technically unlimited, but
it's not like the autobahn in Germany, okay?
These are rural, country roads where you really do not want to do 150 K's an
hour, believe me. Right. Now let's talk about getting getting a driver's licence.
Well, I can only talk about Australia, and
actually I can only talk about my state, because it changes from state to state.
I also got my licence about 15 years ago - that shows my age - so it might have
changed a little bit since then. Now how do you get your licence? Well, firstly you
need to get your Ls. L stands for learner's... Learner's license or learner's
permit? Anyway, doesn't matter. Learner's licence. And when you have your Ls you
get like a yellow piece of cardboard or plastic and it's got a black L on it. And
yeah, you have to stick that to your car. You can get that when you're sixteen.
To get that you have to pass a theoretical test that's basically just about road
rules. We don't have to learn about parts of the car or anything, which is which is
good for me - or was good for me. Yes, it's a pretty easy test. It's a
multiple-choice test that you do on a computer. If you pass, you get your
learner's license. Now when you have your Ls, you can drive with a fully licensed driver.
I should add as well that getting your
licence in Australia is actually relatively cheap. I lived in Europe for a
few years - for several years - and at least when I was there, I know that in Germany
and France it cost a couple thousand euros or something like that to get your
licence, because you had to pay for driving classes (for professional driving
classes). In Australia you don't have to do that. You only have to pay like
administrative fees when you get... when you get your different licences, and
every time you sit a test. So in total it costs, I don't know, a few hundred dollars.
Maybe it's a bit more now, but when I went through it, I think maybe I spent $500 or
something like that. Um... what else? Oh yes, so you're Ls. So when you have your
Ls you have to drive a minimum number of hours with a licensed driver. When I
was doing it, it was 50 hours, but I think now it's about 120.
I did about 70 or 80 - that was recommended. You can technically cheat,
because you have to write down your hours in a log book and there isn't
really a way for them to check it, you know. You have to put when you started,
when you stopped, the number of kilometres... Yeah and then they have a
quick look at it. I didn't cheat because I didn't see the point
and I'm also always afraid of getting into trouble. But yeah, technically you
can cheat. So my dad taught me how to drive. He was a good teacher. A bit
impatient sometimes, but... but he taught me well.
I had one professional driving class and the instructor said that I had been
taught well. So yeah, props to my dad. I was lucky. Right. Then I went to my...
I went for my practical test. When you're 17 you can... you can get your Ps (your
provisional license). There are some people who get their licence on their
17th birthday - they're really eager to get their licence.
I was pretty eager, but I think I waited 1 or 2 months. So I was 17 and 2 months
old or something like that. The day I got my licence was a little stressful. I mean,
these tests are always stressful, but when we went to the place where you
do your test, they... they checked the car... they checked that all the lights
were working, and it turned out that the brake lights weren't working. So they
said to us: "Well, you can go around the corner to a mechanic and, you know, maybe
he can fix it." So luckily we got it fixed pretty quickly and we went back and I
did my test and I passed the first time. Yeah. I was very happy about that. It was
probably the last time in my life that I parallel parked. Yeah. Now when you have
your provisional licence, you can drive up to 90 kilometres an hour,
so you can't go the full speed limit on the highway, but you can do 90. You also
aren't allowed to drink any alcohol. When you have your full licence... I mean, you
can't drink a lot of alcohol, but you can drink a little bit. So yes, you have your
red Ps for one year, and then when I was doing it after the one year I had to
go and do another test. It was... I think it was called the hazards perception test,
something like that. Now I think you have to do that test before you do your
practical test, but anyway, you get the idea. So you got your Ls for one year,
your red Ps for one year, and then you have your green Ps for another
two years. And then after that you can get your full licence.
What am I like as a driver? Well, I wouldn't say I'm a good driver because I
don't have a lot of experience driving, but I'm a very cautious driver. I know that
it's not very normal for a 32-year-old Australian to be inexperienced as a
driver, because our public transport isn't very good so normally you need to
drive places, but I left home when I was 18. I went to Sydney, where I lived close
to the city and there were lots of buses. Then when I was 20, I went to Europe and
I lived in big cities that had good public transport. So I haven't... I haven't
done a lot of driving in my life. And I can only drive automatic cars. Most
cars in Australia are automatic, so you don't actually need to know how to drive
a manual car. A friend of mine did show me like about 10 years ago - 10 or 12
years ago - and I drove his car a couple of times, so I know the theory, but no, I
can't drive manual cars. I've never had any accidents,
but I think that's more a question of luck, because I have a friend who's been
in two accidents and neither of them were her fault. One time somebody hit her
from behind, and another time somebody ran a red light. So yeah.
The funniest thing I probably did driving was when I didn't know how the
windscreen wipers worked, and I started them and couldn't stop them on a day
when it was bright and sunny. So what I wanted to do was clean something...
I hadn't been driving this car for very long, so I didn't really know how the
windscreen wipers worked and I wanted to clean them, so I sprayed the water - I wanted
to clean the windscreen - I sprayed the water,
I got it clean, but then I couldn't turn them off. I was like getting different
speeds, but I couldn't turn them off entirely and it was a bright, sunny day
and I had to drive on this main road for like ten or fifteen minutes, and I
couldn't park anyway. So I just had my windscreen wipers going the whole time.
I imagine that it probably looked quite funny to the people who were driving in
the other direction. One thing I don't do, though - one thing I don't get - is road rage.
Road rage is when people get really angry when they're driving and they
start shouting abuse at people, or they even like get out of their car and start
beating up other drivers. If you look up road rage on YouTube, you will find some
examples. I don't know, maybe it's because I meditate...? I don't know, I just don't get
angry really easily. Normally I'm just happy that, you know, I'm alive.
There wasn't a serious accident - yay! Always a bonus. I do swear at people
sometimes, though. You know, I say you know, "arsehole", "wanker".
But I just say it to myself, then I feel better. Now let's talk about some bad
driving habits. Well one thing that people do in Australia is that they
overtake from the left. Here you are supposed to overtake from the right.
To overtake is when you just go in front of somebody. So I'm here, somebody's here,
they go like that - that's overtaking. But some people do it from the left and it's
very dangerous, and yeah... annoying. However, I think the most annoying thing is
tailgating. Tailgating is when you drive too close to the person
in front of you. So if you have somebody really close behind you,
they are tailgating you. I don't know why people do this. It's... I don't know if it's
a power thing or if they're impatient or if they think they're going
to save five seconds in their life, but in any case, it really pisses me off.
Another thing that people do sometimes is not indicating. To indicate is when
you turn on a certain light which shows that you are going to turn right or left.
To be honest, this doesn't annoy me so much because I think we all occasionally
forget to indicate. However, there's no excuse for tailgating. Tailgaters...
They have issues. They do.
And that's it, guys. I hope you liked this video. If you did,
please hit the thumbs up. I think the best way for you to absorb this
vocabulary, is if you watch it a couple more times - if you can bear listening to
me! You don't necessarily have to watch it immediately, but maybe in a week or so,
just turn it on and watch it once or twice. If you have any questions or
comments, don't hesitate to put them in the comments section, and I will do my
best to answer them. See you next time!