I had a good laugh with a pupil late this afternoon.
We were doing a lesson on roundabouts and as we were heading home we were in a 4omph zone with a 30mph approaching. As the 30mph signs came into view around a long bend, I said:
Look at what’s coming up and plan ahead.
Nothing happened. So I said:
Look at those road signs – what are you going to do?
Still nothing happened. I said:
Look at the change to the speed limit.
As we sailed through them at 40mph, still nothing happened. I brought us down to 30mph using the dual controls and got her to pull over. The conversation went something like this:
The speed limit dropped to 30mph. Why didn’t you react to the signs?
They weren’t very clear.
But they were big round things with ’30’ written on them, and they both had bright white lights shining on them. And I was pointing them out to you for the last 400 metres. How do you mean ‘not very clear’
We both had a good laugh about it.
When we arrived back at her home, though, it became clear what she meant. Her first language isn’t English and doesn’t use Arabic numerals or Western scripts. What she meant was she’d seen the sign but what was written on it didn’t make any sense to her at that particular moment.
It’s an interesting situation, because she insisted on taking her Theory Test in English and she passed easily. When I first started teaching her a while ago her English was extremely basic. She had a long lay-off in the middle to have twins, and her English has progressed no end since she started up again. She’s adamant she wants to take her test without an interpreter. Even when I tried to learn a few Chinese words to help her she said she’d rather learn how to drive using just English.