駕照Driving License (II)

2004年十一月的某一天，我們和賣車的鄰居一起去了代書和公證人那兒簽名，從那一刻起，我正式從無車階級晉升成有車階級，考駕照的事也就變的更刻不及緩。不過因為再沒多久就是聖誕假期，我們於是決定等到假期過後再去報名。
One day in November 2004, we went to sign the documents together with our neighbor at the allograph and notary. At the very moment I signed, I was “upgraded” to car owner. The issue to get my driving license was even more urgent. However, Xmas was arriving in a short while and it’s vacation time. So we decided to go to the driving school after the vacation.

在報名之前，就已經向一些朋友問過考駕照的事，大部分搬到義大利來的台灣人（或外國人），都是參加理論口試（因為據說口試比較簡單），我身邊沒有任何外國人參加過筆試。很自然地，大家也都建議我考口試，唯一唱反調的是米奇。
Before I went to the driving school, I asked around with my friends for more information. Most Taiwanese (or foreigners) who move to Italy choose to do oral exam (it is said to be easier) and no foreigners I know went to written exam. Naturally, they all recommended me to choose the oral one. Michele was the only one who’s against this idea.

大部分義大利人也覺得筆試不容易，因為其中常常出現一些陷阱，試卷上的十大題內各有三小題，應考者得針對每一題敘述的對錯來進行判斷，至多只能犯四個錯誤。儘管如此，米奇卻覺得我只要肯花時間去讀書，多做考題，筆試過關絕對不是難事。
Most Italians find theory exam difficult. There’re always some traps and they do play with words, trying to confuse you. On the exam paper there’re ten columns and there’re three questions in each column. One has to judge whether the description of each question is right or wrong and can only make up to four errors. Even though, Michele thought that if I would spend some time preparing myself for it, it wouldn’t be too difficult for me to pass the exam.

在剛開始去駕訓班上理論課的時候，我並沒有確實告訴老師我到底要考口試和筆試，至少在第一個月我得觀望一下，看看準備的方式如何。這種課程的學員流動率很大，不過大體上每次上課都有十個人左右，一個小時的時間裡，老師花半小時講解當日主題，另外的半小時則針對考題來做複習。
When I started the theory course, I didn’t tell the teacher what I was up to exactly. I told him I had to observe the situation in the first month and see how I could prepare myself for it. People come and go in this kind of courses, but in the average there’re about ten students in the classroom. During the one-hour class, thirty minutes are spent to explain the theme of the day and the rest for Q&A.

每個星期三堂課，加上盡職的老師偶爾還會在星期六下午替口試生加課，我一下子就跟老師混熟了。開始上課以後過沒兩個星期，老師又問了我一次想要參加口試還是筆試，我照例給了個「我還沒決定」的答案，他卻開始跟米奇一樣，認為我應該可以考筆試。
There’re three classes a week, and sometimes an extra hour for students participating in oral exam in Saturday afternoon. So the teacher got to know me in quite a short while. Two weeks after I started, he asked me again whether I’d take oral exam or not. I still told him “I’m undecided” but he started to think that I should be able to do the written one.

適合筆試或口試，其實跟個性有關。我自己其實傾向於筆試，畢竟從小到大被訓練成考試機器，只要是考題範圍有限的東西，向來都難不倒我。再三斟酌之下，我決定參加筆試，也終於在五月去參加了筆試，滿分過關。
Suitable for written or oral exam, it’s a matter of personality. Honestly speaking, I was more for the written exam since the very beginning. I’ve been taking exams since a young age. As long as there’s a limited area for the exam, it’s not a big issue. After thinking and rethinking, I decided to take the written exam. I was sent to the exam in May and got through it errorless.