Upper Intermediate - Getting a Driver's License

that was cool to hear.  I can definitely say that I understood some of the words. But back down to elementary I go.

I am still looking for a copy of the driving rules study book in English and Chinese. The bookstores dont carry it and I never make it to the 车管所.

Driving in China reminds me of the bumper car ride but without actual contact. Actually its classic Chinese queing rules transferred to cars. They signal intent by leaning in that direction and its as if there is an invisible force field that they all can feel because no one makes eye contact. If you do, you loose. Its one big game of "chicken". He who has the most nerve wins. What is amazing is that it seems to "work". Its fascinating to watch a good cab driver. They will sacrifice much just to gain 10 ft even if it puts them in the wrong lane. The lane change is then the next challenge. Unlike the west, horns are usually used without malice. Its just a another tool. I have become quite used to it and missing a bus by 3/8 inch actually makes me feel good now. Great driver, look how close he got without touching. If you drove western style in China, you would probably cause many accidents. I look forward to a day when I can give it a try. I think.

Still no driving allowed for foreigners without long-term residence in China?

Joachim - yes, its my understanding that you need a residence permit to get a drivers license.

中国人的开车技巧就像楼上说的那样超级厉害，简直是超越一般，超越常识，超越法律，超越国际标准的高级驾驶技术。开车速度当然超快，汽车如果有翅膀马上就会飞起来。但是很奇怪，中国人的停车入位技术差劲得要命，汽车停得太乱，可能是中国国土辽阔的原故吧。

Did anyone read the New Yorker article about a driving school in China (and his experiences--and his wife's--trying to drive a rental car without an accident? It was a year or two ago and explains why Chinese drivers drive the way they do. If you're interested, the article is: "Wheels of Fortune" by Peter Hessler, Nov 26, 2007: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/26/071126fa_fact_hessler. This is just an abstract, though, and lacks the details of how driving is taught in Hessler's part of China.

Also, two suggestions for Qing Wen programs: (1) yuan yin vs. liyou; (2) study vs. learn in Chinese. In English, study and learn have very different meanings. Is this distinction made in Chinese and, if so, how?

Oh, and while I'm at it...It would be helpful if you told us which syllable to stress in each vocabulary word. When I was reading John P's Sinosplice article on semantic flavors of "my," I linked to an article about how the Chinese tell a fluent Waiguoren from a native Chinese speaker. Someone ventured that an important criterion is where the speaker puts the stress in each word.

great lesson!!

rjberki,

Yeah, they definitely drive with their own rules.  The thing that bothers me is, they create more traffic jams due to their rules.  Many a time have I seen someone making a traffic jam worse because they selfishly blocked a lane in an effort to move ahead.  This prevents the other side from moving until the "blockers" lane moves, etc., etc.

Considering I don't drive, it shouldn't bother me.  But my organized and perfectionist mind has a problem when I see such things :-)

However, these Beijingers are definitely better drivers than the majority of Americans.

The great thing about Beijing is the public transportation is good enough that I have no need to drive around here.

dedsall78,

I know what you mean. Get that 10 ft even if there is total gridlock for the next 5 miles. Sometimes it just doesnt make sense. Its a mind set.

I wonder what the stats on traffic accidents looks like compared to other countries. Maybe China needs a national govt sponsored driver's Ed program. How many countries dont allow foreign visitors to drive? I think China is unique in this. What exactly are they trying to say?

I think maybe a problem with traffic in China (or in Hangzhou where I live) is just that there are more and more drivers every year. Plus some roads here aren't built for cars. They're two small. Add to that, the fact that for half the year the government is usually the same roads it rebuilt last year, and you have a lot, a lot of traffic.

As far as I know you do not need an English driving rules study book, but money and someone to take the test to sit next to you behind the computer :-). 

So glad I found this lesson - I passed my 路考 today, so as a proud owner of a 驾照 , I can actually tell my Chinese friends that I can finally stop taking driving lessons!

How would I say "The first time (I took the test), I didn't succeed" and "Fortunately, I passed the test today?"

I haven't taken the test myself, but when I researched a little bit online I found out that one can take the test in English and that there are some questions that one normally doesn't get asked in other countries.

What should a driver do when he needs to spit while driving?

A. Spit through the window.

B. Spit into a piece of waste paper, then put it into a garbage can.

C. Spit on the floor of the vehicle.

Drivers should:

A. Deliberately underestimate each other.

B. Compete for road supremacy.

C. Learn and help each other, adopt one's strong point while overcoming one's weak point and keep safely driving.

After doing an intensive course for a year I've had the mandarin learning equivalent of writer's cramp for months but this lesson has made a change to that. I hope. There were 5 characters in here that I didn't know yet the first time I listened to it I got very little of it, in fact I thought it was about California. Doh.

One  question

今天你老公送你来的?

When is it OK to drop the 吗

今天你老公送你来的 吗? is obviously a question

With no 吗 how do you tell when listening that this is a question rather than a statement, in English intonation would give it away but this doesn't work with Mandarin.? Is it down to context.?

Hi duheaume

It's fine to drop the 吗 in a question. Like in English, the tone at the end of the sentence will rise a bit to express the interrogative mood.

I have two questions. Is John saying 还是懒得去？ If so, does that mean I'm still too lazy to go or it's still too much trouble to go? Also, what is the idiom(?) Jenny uses at the end of her conversation with John (toward the very end of the lesson)? It sounds like "maluxiashou?"

Hi kuaihaizi,

Jiaojie explains that 还是懒得去 that means I'm still too lazy to go.

"马路杀手mǎlùshāshǒu" Some people can't drive well, and they get into accidents, so they're like “马路上的杀手”-- killers on the roads!

About when it is right to drop the 吗 in questions, isn't it true that orignally Chinese didn't make use of punctuation marks? So the 吗 is in fact a written and spoken punctuation mark. The use of ? in written Chinese should encourage writers to drop the 吗.

Here are my lookups, as usual from MDBGk. Note the alternative writings for sha1che1 = brakes. 煞车 has 35200 occurences in Google images, 刹车 has about 10x as many (415000). I find it a bit of a pity to associate something as life-saving as brakes with a character containing 杀.

坚持    jian1chi2    persistence / to persist / to uphold / to insist on
发脾气    fa1pi2qi4    to get angry
命令    ming4ling4    order / command / CL: 道, 個｜个
情愿    qing2yuan4    willingness / would rather (agree to X than Y)
国际化    guo2ji4hua4    to internationalize / internationalization
境外    jing4wai4    outside (a country's) borders
驾驶执照    jia4shi3zhi2zhao4    driver's license
(执照    zhi2zhao4    a license / a permit)
证明    zheng4ming2    proof / testimony / to prove / to confirm the truth of
原本    yuan2ben3    originally / original
具有    ju4you3    to have / to possess
办事    ban4shi4    to handle (affairs) / to work
手续    shou3xu4    formalities / CL: 道, 個｜个
交通    jiao1tong1    transport / traffic /communication
龄    ling2        age
驾驶    jia4shi3    to pilot (ship, airplane etc) / to drive
工龄    gong1ling2    length of service / seniority
计划经济    ji4hua4jing1ji4    planned economy
效率    xiao4lü4    efficiency
改变    gai3bian4    to change / to alter / to transform
主意    zhu3yi5    plan / idea / decision / CL: 個｜个
煞车    sha1che1    to brake (when driving) also 刹车 sha1che1
油门    you2men2    accelerator (pedal) / gas pedal / throttle
杀手    sha1shou3    killer   

Several months ago I went to get get my license in Beijing, with the feeling that I would not be able to get a permanent license as I do not have a residence permit.

But to my surprise, because I am married and have a year long L Visa, they said that I qualified as being a permanent resident.

The process was exactly as described in the podcast. I purchased the english version of the traffic rules and studied them for a few days and then sat the test.

You need to get over 90% correct to pass and as the questions do not simply rely on logic you do need to read and learn the rules.

You take the test on the computer and at the end you press the "results" button for your score.

Then you go to register the score with the supervisor and he will give you a note. A few days later you go go back and get your license.

Be warned about studying for the test - you need to. The guy in front of me said his score was 36/100. Even the supervisor was impressed by such a low score :-)

welhome, i'm curious.  Did you get a  driver license in Beijing because you plan on buying a car in Beijing?

pretzellogic

No - I have lived here six years now and have not seriously considered buying a car. I spend most of my time in the City - I live five minutes walk from Tiananmen. The subway and my bike is enough.

The reason for the license was because I was planning to take my Son on a tour of Sichuan and thought it would make sense to hire a 4-wheel drive.

I also thought hiring a car for get-aways would be nice - so the license is convenient for that.

Interesting. I didn't know that you could rent a car you could drive in China, ala Hertz/Avis/Dollar and so on.  I knew that you could hire a car and driver to get you anywhere out of the way.

I get the impression that getting the license is the easy part.  The hard part seems to me that as a foreigner, I have different assumptions about how other drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. are going to behave when I encounter them. 

It is not unusual to see a westerner driving a car in Beijing. That dosnt mean the percentage or the absolute number is large - perhaps only a few thousand in a City of 13 million. But as foreigners tend to live together in certain places they are easy to see.

In the City driving is not thebest means of transport - you would be a masochist to want to be driving in endless traffic jams.

Outside the City is a different matter. There I think the risks are not great - provided you drive defensively. In fact, people do come to China and drive long distances from one part of the country to the other.

You can also get a temporary driving license for a month or so specifically to meet the needs of tourists and business vistitors. No perminant residence required.

Whatever, you do you need to know the laws and be very careful until you find your feet.

Hope this helps.

Does anyone know anything about moped licenses? I am planning on getting an electric moped/bike and was wondering what I needed.

@welhome

I understand that this has changed recently, and that it varies from place to place.  It is not that easy to get your licence out here in the wild west.  The regulations are now quite onerous with compulsory driving lessons (yes, in a car, on the road) costing I'm told in the order of 6,000 RMB.  In other words the experience and cost is not that different to driver education and testing in the West.  Although, the actual driving test here where I live is still off-road. 

I am not sure if you can still 'translate' your foreign licence. And do the knowledge test. Possibly.  I wonder if it will become reciprocal?   

@ousijia

You don't need a drivers licence for a 电动车 (I assume this includes what you call a 'moped') - but I think that in my city there is a height limit for the rider!  And some laws you have to comply with.  but you can ride through red lights.  Scary!  

welhome, thanks for the info.

@bodawei,

Thanks for letting me know :)

I now have more direct (and therefore more reliable) information on the cost of getting a drivers licence in a medium size city in China - someone I know is just about through the process.  They have spent about 3,500 RMB on compulsory driving instruction and the test itself costs 300 RMB. For some reason there are four different test components held on four different days (I'm not clear on the details of the test components but part of it is a knowledge test.)