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!
