Driver’s Licence
Driver's License
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José Cruz: Ah, automatically I think about those kids that you see those those those Japanese kids getting their licences for the first time and I think about my experience and I just always shake my head at the amount of money that is spent here to get a driver’s licence.
Alex: Yeah, why do you shake your head?
José: Well because they spend money here to get a drivers licence. Now, it’s not free in Canada I think to get your learner’s permit which is your first paper test was if I remember it cost me like $20.
Alex: I think it was about the same for me too.
José: Okay (Yeah) and then to take the final test again (mm-hmm) I think was about 20 dollars, maybe 40.
Alex: Yeah, I I think it’s gone up since then but uh, well we could do a quick check and find out.
José: We could but what do you think it’s up to now? About twice that? Alex: Uh, it’s probably around 50 or 60 dollars now.
José: Okay. (Yeah) so, you know 20 plus 60, 80 dollars, which translates into about – okay at these exchange rates let’s say seven-seven hundred, 7,700 yen (mm-hmm yeah) and these kids depending on the city that they live in can spend anything from 200,000 Yen or about two thou- let’s say roughly 2000 Canadian dollars to 250,000 Yen $2500.
Alex: The Japanese uh students.
Jose: Yeah yeah.
Alex: Yeah, that’s enormous.
José: I- that’s huge and that’s and I am just talking about price, you know. But um this is a different country, so you can’t complain about it too much, right?
Alex: Yeah, everyplace is different right? It doesn’t mean it’s wrong uh or good uh, maybe it’s just uh right.
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Driver's License
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Alex Bodnar
Canadian
Harriston, Ontario
José Domingo Cruz
Canadian
Vancouver, British Columbia
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I really agree with your opinions. I also think that the amount of money that Japanese have to spend in order to get driver’s license is too large. Actually, I gave up getting driver’s license using my parents’ money during the university is closed caused by coronavirus because I was surprised at the large amount of money needed to start my new life in Kitakyusyu. I was not be able to ask my parents to give me more money. Today, most of Japanese need their driver’s license to do whatever so Japanese government need to make the cost lower. I was surprised at them of other countries. Actually, however, Japan also be like them. I was interested in why it of Japan is such high so I researched. In truth there are some reasons, for example the quality of Japanese lessons of car schools and the large amount of money used for maintenance of car schools. Even so, however, I think it is too expensive. And I think that there is a big problem. It is that most of Japanese do not notice that this situation is different from other countries. Maybe, most of Japanese will be surprised if notice this fact.
When I was a freshman, I got my driver’s license during the summer vacation. As you talked here, I paid enormous money to go to driver school and get driver license. Of course, I had to get help from my parents to pay for my schooling. In addition to that, my twin brother was going to driver school at the same time, so the cost was double. At that time, I thought this price was norm, but after reading this article, I learn about the Canadian price and I am surprised at how cheap it is. As you said, it’s a different country, so I may not be able to complain about it. But I feel it a bit unfair. There are no trains in my home town Okinawa, so people who can not drive a car is very inconvenient to do anything. Okinawan people’s lives depend on our cars, so a driver’s license is a must item. In my opinion, it’s a bit too much money for the necessities of life. I think that It would be nice if it was a little cheaper or if we could get a discount.