Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Understandable English podcast And today I am going to be talking about learning to drive in the UK. So how do you drive in the UK? I am going to tell you a step by step process of how people learn to drive, get their driving license and start driving. I will also tell you some strange things about this process and as my wife is currently doing this process I will share some experiences.
So let's get started and hopefully this will be interesting for you. For many people driving is an essential, so a very important skill and understanding the process can be very important, especially if you're planning to move or live in the UK or even to spend some time here. So to start with, my wife is not from the UK, she is actually from Russia, from Moscow. And when we moved here she already had a Russian driving license which allows her to
drive in the UK for some time. So you can drive in the UK on a foreign driving license for up to one year, and after this point you have to do the test in the UK or convert your driving license if they allow you to change or exchange your license. However, it's only really European Union countries which are allowed to exchange their license without doing an exam, and I think Ukraine is now added into this list as well.
But for all other countries, including the USA, after one year you have to do the test in the UK and go through the process. So today I'm going to describe the process first for auk citizen or someone who is turning the legal age and wants to learn to drive. So let's get started. So in the UK you can start to drive when you are 17 years old and first you need something called a provisional driving license.
This driving license allows you to get lessons and also to do lessons even with your parents or a family member who can drive. But when you're doing lessons, you must have visible on the car something we call an L plate L for learner. This lets other drivers know that you are learning and maybe you're going to make some mistakes, drive a little bit slower, and it allows them to be careful around you after you get your full driving license.
So first you want your provisional driving license and this lets you do lessons and the driving test and after you pass your driving test you get a full driving licence. So first, to get your provisional driving licence in the UK, you must be a resident of the UK, so you must live here and meet the minimum age requirement of 17. So you have to be over the age of 17. And it's quite simple. You simply fill out an online form, pay the application fee and send some documents by post.
I didn't like this part with my wife because it required us to send her passport and some other very important documents by post and I was a bit worried that if they got lost or they didn't return it quickly we could have problems getting new ones. It's always a little bit uneasy or worrying having to send important documents in post or by post. I don't understand why we can't just have digital documents or upload scans of documents. It's strange to me and quite
ideas or an old system. So anyway, once you receive your provisional driving license, you can start to practice and learn to drive. But before you do your driving test, so the practical test, you have to do another test too. So to get your driving license there are two tests. One is the theoretical test, the theory test and this is like a digital test and the other is the practical test. So the driving test where you actually drive a car.
Most countries have the same process and the theory test, it has two parts, multiple choice questions and hazard perception. So the multiple choice questions you learn lots of different questions and answers, what certain signs mean, rules of the road and all sorts of stuff. You do practice tests. It's quite straightforward. It's quite simple. The hazard perception is like a video test where you have to hit a button every time you see a hazard.
So a hazard is a danger when something could be dangerous. And this test is also quite straightforward, so quite simple, especially if you practice it lots of times before. So the driving test is like a practical driving exam and it tests your driving skills including vehicle safety checks, basic maneuvers, so for example parking a car, reversing around a corner so going backwards and parallel parking. So another type of parking.
And often the preparation for this test will involve your instructor, so the person teaching you how to drive, taking you to an area where your test is, so getting you used to driving the roads where the test is and helping you to prepare yourself for the test. So of course some different things in the UK, so we drive on the left side of the road.
My wife, she learned to drive on the right side of the road and coming to the UK she was a bit worried about driving on the left, but to be honest it was not too hard for her to get used to driving on the left and I think she surprised herself at how quickly she has gotten used to this. Some of our driving rules are also different, including signs.
Signs can look different from other countries, which makes the theory part of the test very important for new drivers in the UK. Pay lots of attention to these signs and which ones are different or very different from your country, because sometimes signs can look similar to other countries but mean completely different things. So be very careful. And certain rules in the UK are very strict, so in some countries they aren't so strict about wearing seatbelts in the back of the car.
In the UK it is very strict, so you need to make sure that you're wearing a seat belt when you're in the front or the back of the car, because the driver it is the driver's responsibility. So make sure all of your passengers are wearing seatbelts because you can lose your license or get in a lot of trouble if any of your passengers aren't wearing seatbelts.
Another thing which is different from some countries like the US, In the UK we have a lot of roundabouts, so a circle that we drive around instead of junctions. So when roads connect, the reason we have roundabouts is because they are safer, so there are less serious accidents on roundabouts. But for new drivers in the UK these can be confusing sometimes and they take a while to get used to. But with a little bit of practice it's very easy to get used to.
So I'm going to make a separate episode of the podcast about cars in the UK because it's quite interesting. A lot of people in the UK drive manual cars, so mechanical cars. Some people call them so they don't drive automatic cars. And there are some strange reasons for this. And I'm going to do a separate video about cars and maybe strange things in the UK with cars. But thank you so much for listening.
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