A happy 68-year-old.
From the AP:
A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver's license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a driving test.Seems like only yesterday we read about her 772nd fail. I'll reiterate what I said in February: jokes about bad drivers aside, her repeated failures probably owe to her being old, poor, and illiterate.
Cha Sa-soon, 68, finally passed the written exam with a score of 60 on Wednesday, said Choi Young-chul, a police official at the drivers' license agency in Jeonju, 130 miles (210 kilometers) south of Seoul.
13 comments:
smiled....and agreed in full
I give her kudos for trying so many times. I would have given up much soon.
You only need 60 out of 100 points to pass? That's like getting a 'C' in high school, no wonder Korean drivers are so bad.
In comparison to Australia, you have to get roughly higher than 80% correct to pass the written test.
let me know when she is on the road so I can stay home! Anyone who fails that many times should not be behind the wheel of a car!
Yeah, I'm no longer going out on my bike...
||I'll reiterate what I said in February: jokes about bad drivers aside, her repeated failures probably owe to her being old, poor, and illiterate.||
That's a very good point, Brian. I didn't consider it. The poor woman might only be able to recognize 1 word out of 10 and can't even begin to understand the questions. Laughs aside, there is probably a deeper more tragic story behind this that the "odd enough news" section (ie "its funny when non white people die tragically and unexpectedly news section") gives not even token acknowledgment of.
It plays much better if this is just a feisty but daft old lady who won't give up.
Ashanty, unless she's mentally retarded, I'd imagine that she has the intelligence to understand the rules of the road. Brian surmised that her repeated failures reflect her illiteracy, not her long-term inability to understand the basic principles of driving.
Brian, I've never heard of Korean adults that are illiterate. How common is this in Korea? You say you're from Pittsburgh, which is a good hockey town, so you might remember the case of Jacques Demers, former coach of the Habs, who admitted he was illiterate after he retired.
Adeel, thanks, I had forgotten about Demers.
I wrote a little about literacy last December and the news that a basic literacy test found only 1.7% of Korean adults were considered illiterate. Literacy is up in Korea, thanks to the ease of learning Hangeul, but it's certainly not universal. Some of the local buses I take, for example, have ads for a hagwon that offers Hangeul classes for adults. And in February I posted some pictures of a graduation ceremony for older people who had not yet received an education or learned to read:
http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2009/02/happy-graduation.html
The asshole Perez Hilton can go and say that some people shouldn't be given licenses, and I guess that's the lesson learned when the media back home reports this as a case of moron Koreans letting anyone drive. It's remarkable how shitty the coverage on Korea is from outside Korea, and how the people who are paid to do this for a living don't seem to do the most basic of homework. (Another example of this is the "Koreans can watch TV while driving" stories, which fail to mention that the so-called televisions are also navigation systems, hence their widespread use.)
But, one does have to wonder why the local authorities would allow a person to fail 900+ times without stepping in and either offering her the help she needs, or saying "enough is enough."
Here's a story from 2005 about an elderly farmer's difficulties
***
After 271 failures, the 272nd attempt’s a charm. A nearly 70-year-old farmer in a rural village in North Gyeongsang Province has finally passed the formally written section of his driver’s license examination on the 272nd attempt. The North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency’s Driver’s License Examination Office in Mungyeong announced Thursday that Seo Sang-moon, who had applied for the academic part of the examination 272 times since August 2000, passed the examination conducted Tuesday afternoon.
Seo reminisced, “Being a repairman traveling around North Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces, the driver’s license was a necessity, but I did not dare apply for the written examination because I am illiterate. Only after 2000, with the introduction of the oral exam, was I able to apply.”
***
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200504/200504140027.html
I've changed the post's title and added "written" in there to add emphasis.
"In comparison to Australia, you have to get roughly higher than 80% correct to pass the written test."
You're assuming they are scored under identical rubrics. I've heard that in England, you lose points for not checking your mirrors (all three) every 3 seconds. In NY City, on the other hand, you don't lose points unless you actually hit something.
Anecdotally, I've heard that the driving test is more difficult in Korea than in most American cities.
I don't know how poor she could be if she spent $5000 on something that she's obviously been able to get by without up to this point.
John B, I was referring to the written test in both countries, not the practical test. 60 out of 100 is very low.
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