VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City is the home for a large number of foreigners. Many of them need to have motorbike driving licenses. Let’s see how hard they try to get the license.
At the Tan Phu driving license testing center in HCM City, at noon on a Sunday. Tom, an American man was wet with sweat. Tom was waiting for the test with a dozen of foreigners.

Tom said he is an English teacher at a foreign language center in HCM City. The test was scheduled at 1.30pm but he went to the testing center early to avoid traffic jams. Tom said he needs the driving license to take his girlfriend to Lai Thieu.

“Using cabs is costly and my girlfriend does not like the air conditioner on taxis,” he explained.

Among foreigners at the testing center, there was a German man of over 70 years old, who could speak Vietnamese very well. He said he needs the driving license to travel Saigon’s streets every afternoon by motorbike and to go fishing at Binh Quoi tourist site in Binh Thanh district at weekend.  

Like Tom, he was inconvenient when he had to go to the testing center early to wait in the scorching sun.

An Australian man took his baby to the testing center. He complained that he thought the test would take place very quickly, so he took his wife and baby there, but the test was late.

The staff of the testing center appeared at 2pm and the test started.

The German man was turning around the eight circles very smoothly, but he suddenly stopped to walk with his motorcycle. The supervisor asked him to get on the vehicle to continue the test but he kept walking. Finally, he failed the test.

The man disagreed and explained that he is old and it is safer to get out of the motorcycle to walk on such twisty roads. He said the law doesn’t respect citizens’ cautiousness. Until the test supervisor explained that with the crowded density of vehicles in Vietnam, if drivers are not very skillful, accidents will occur very easily, the man accepted the test results. He said he would practice harder to attend another test.

Raiban, a middle-aged Danish woman, who was familiar to driving scooters, struggled with a gear motorbike. The test supervisor helped her by put the motorbike in gear already but she was so confused. The woman put the gear into zero gear so the motorbike did not run.

A French man, who was also not familiar with gear motorbikes, sped up very often, so the vehicle jumped up like a horse. After the test, he looked very tense.

Lam Duc Phuong, a test supervisor at Tan Phu centre, told some interesting stories about foreign contestants.

“I know a Canadian young man, who did not have a driving license at home so he had to take part in the theory test. Being determined to get the driving license, he shared a room with Vietnamese students to learn Vietnamese,” Phuong said.

According to Phuong, some foreigners want to have a driving license as a kind of personal paper because if they stay at hotels, their passports are often held by hotels.

“Most of foreigners who acquire for driving licenses in Vietnam are well-trained people so they are very serious at tests. Test supervisors often relax severity on foreigners because these people respect Vietnamese traffic rules, so they try to get a driving license. However, most of them do not need the assistance,” Phuong said.

Nguyen Duc Tien, a lecturer at the Tan Phu driving license testing center, said that many foreigners complained that the theoretical test is heavy and vague and they do not understand this is the test on traffic law or driving techniques.

“It is very hard to instruct foreigners because of the language barriers, but they are very enthusiastic so I have to try to help them” Tien said.

Ma Thi Sen, from the Tien Bo driving training school, said the procedure to get a driving license for foreigners is very simple. Showing passport and driving license in their countries, foreigners will be exempted from the theoretical test.

However, the theoretical test is “torture” for them because there is only teaching materials in Vietnamese, with 120 questions. Without assistance from interpreters, 90 percent of foreigners fail. Many people have to learn by rote, based on signs.

Lam Duc Phuong, who has witnessed “half laughing and half crying” circumstances of foreigners at driving tests, said he is working on a driving training book in English.

Phuong also said that Tan Phu center will allow contestants to use scooters at tests.

TN