Driving Miss Daisy

I hate stupid drivers.

 

There is stupid as in not following the rules of the road and then there’s stupid where they just don’t understand how to drive defensively. 

 

Recently, actually within the last half hour, I had an online argument with someone on a forum about Chinese drivers.  Readers know I’m Chinese, if not from pictures then you can tell from my “About Me” page.  But this doesn’t mean that I have to love my race and their nuances.  Sure, there are some great things I’m proud of, such as being of a civilization that invented the printing press, compass technology, and paper before even the dark ages in Europe.  But in today’s world, you can’t argue that if you lived in the metro area’s in Canada, you won’t run into the typical “Chinese Driver”.

 

Now, true to my word, I didn’t get into the argument with those posters on the forum, instead, I just edited my post and will rant here where it’s a more appropriate place.  I’m a Chinese driver.  My friends are Chinese drivers.  My family are Chinese drivers.  But for every one good Chinese driver out there, there are two that can’t follow directions or even know the size of their cars.  There are lots of bad drivers in general, just look at those TV shows on Discovery Channel.  But I can only write about what I know and being that my mother is a bad Chinese driver, I can safely say that I have experienced first hand what this is all about. 

 

The reason why they drive in a horrendous manner is that they have:

 

a)       No Shame

b)       No idea that they are actually not a good driver

 

What does it mean to have no shame?  It means that you speak loudly whenever you wish, with no regard for anyone else, and that you heat up your sun dried fermented fish with fish sauce rice in the company microwave for 15 minutes so everyone else’s food tastes like fish.  You don’t see me doing that and why?  Because I have been taught to understand the consequences of my actions.  For some reason, these people have no idea about consequences and assume everyone accepts their behaviour without question.  And you can argue that this is how most people behave in Hong Kong or Mainland China, but that’s not true.  There are lots of people there that do behave reasonably and appropriately.  But there are enough of the shameless for the Chinese government to invest money into public education on proper etiquette before the Beijing Olympics.

 

As for drivers, well not taking the time to learn their vehicles or even bothering to test drive them goes to prove how little they value proper operation procedures.  They just don’t value the lessons involved in learning how to operate a car safely.  I have tried to show and teach my mother many times on how to properly merge or how to gauge the width of her car or how to negotiate a turn on the ramp so you don’t ride into the adjacent lane but she just simply doesn’t care to remember. 

 

Yes, it’s frustrating to see, and yes it’s a big generalization but nonetheless it’s generally true J