Book a driving school who will also get her through the test then grit your teeth hang onto the dashboard and sit in the passenger seat whilst she practices on Thai roads.  Fortunately I taught my wife to drive in the UK along with a school ( although she did tell me how fast my car will go!). Then she degenerated to Thaistyle in Thailand. Now I grit teeth and grab onto everything as she swears her way through Pattaya traffic and even if I drive she instructs me every step of the way despite 50 yrs experience. Tailgating at 120 kph to persuade the driver in front to move over is terrifying.

They have to do a driving school.  But the driving schools here are a joke.  About 4-5 days in total.  With a few hours of driving.

Concentrate on pararell parking , they all fail that one , I taught the Ex , and her and sister they flew thru the  test , maybe rent a car to save wear and tear and get them lil Yaris , easier to maneuver , I usually teach them at a closed school or Global House with big parking lots 

20 hours ago, Thaifish said:

again you need her Thai license translated to English

A Thai license is already in English as well as Thai.

20 hours ago, Natai Beach said:

Take her to an empty carpark. To get a feel for it. Brakes steering etc. 
 

I used to take girls that I had just started seeing and teach them to drive at the sports center carpark in Soi chairapruek dark side Pattaya. 
 

Exciting first or second date for them if they had never driven a car before. 
I had a 100% success rate doing it. 
 

 

Isn’t that called ‘dogging’ ? 

 

 

 

 

54 minutes ago, Ireland32 said:

Concentrate on pararell parking , they all fail that one , I taught the Ex , and her and sister they flew thru the  test , maybe rent a car to save wear and tear and get them lil Yaris , easier to maneuver , I usually teach them at a closed school or Global House with big parking lots 

Parallel park, are you kidding, Thais do not know that you can do that. Most cases when I stop to do a reverse park, with left indicator on, a Thai will try to drive into the space front on with the ar8s of the car sticking out.

19 hours ago, Catkiwi said:

My advice, keep well away from trying to teach her and get the professional drivers in.

Are you sure there a "professional drivers" here? The wife was "taught" by one of the DT inspectors moonlighting on the weekend. Got her license, 3 minor accidents later, all of which could have been avoided. Absolutely refuses to learn to drive properly.

I would take the individual to a school, let them have some lessons then take and hopefully pass the test and get a licence. Then you can start to teach the rules of the road western style and engagement with traffic and other obstacles and junctions  actually out on the road legally. Just my view.

 

First up I appreciate all the responses and as per usual they vary from A to Z.

I guess the biggest difference of opinion is just get her lessons and obtain license with no advice/tips and practical driving from me prior.

I realize that might give a quick result however bit opposite to my thinking. Even today when driving on major road similar to tollway, I was explaining to her that an understanding of the width of the car is learnt from experience. Example I showed that for me to drive exactly on the right marked lane markers is fairly simple. Driving with tyres on left marked lane can take little longer to achieve. 

Yes very boring example but one of MANY.

In Oz there is a requirement that learners do a mandatory #of hours training. It's not insignificant. Nobody would do that with lessons from driving school.

I'm in the camp that as many hours that I can give as a precursor to her finishing off with driving school the better. 

put both hands together and PRAY

Wow. You are so lucky to be teaching someone to drive in Thailand. There are so many many examples of what not to do every day in Thailand.

3 hours ago, GreasyFingers said:

Are you sure there a "professional drivers" here? The wife was "taught" by one of the DT inspectors moonlighting on the weekend. Got her license, 3 minor accidents later, all of which could have been avoided. Absolutely refuses to learn to drive properly.

The luck of the draw I guess. I am not "sure" but it all seemed to be professional enough for us at the time.

I had to go home for a family bereavement about 8 years ago, left the Mrs here, no time to do Visa applications etc, anyway, while I was at home she took proper ?? driving lessons, her instructor just told her to head for beach road, which 8 years ago Klang, Beach road & surrounding areas would have been manic.

 

She passed the test, she is a very good driver and is now more or less my chauffeur, she also learnt a great deal from time spent in the UK.

 

Send her to a driving school, a lot less hassle ????

Driiving school and practice driving in empty parking lot and rural roads with no traffic. During practice until she and you feel comfortable keep your hand on the emergency brake and keep 

the button pushed in so you can slow it down but don’t lock it up....

 

hopefully she knows a bit about driving habits here to keep a look out for..  motos,cars entering from side street without looking for

one... wish something would be done about that... it’s dangerous..

 

45 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

Send her to a driving school, a lot less hassle ????

A lot less hassle means exactly what. 

Have been retired here for 10 years and with my partner about the same. What's the hassle in spending time with intro lessons for driving.

She also can't cook for nuts (who needs to in Thailand) however it's a hobby of mine. Should I teach her some cooking (if she had an interest) or send her to cooking school.

2 minutes ago, DJ54 said:

motos,cars entering from side street without looking for

one... wish something would be done about that... it’s dangerous

Agree. The guys that ride motor bike previously in home country, really understand the concept of defensive driving (on motor bike especially). Always being aware and not assuming car drivers see them etc.

Sadly Thai bikers don't all seem to have same outlook.

On 1/28/2021 at 5:55 AM, Natai Beach said:

Take her to an empty carpark. To get a feel for it. Brakes steering etc. 
 

I used to take girls that I had just started seeing and teach them to drive at the sports center carpark in Soi chairapruek dark side Pattaya. 
 

Exciting first or second date for them if they had never driven a car before. 
I had a 100% success rate doing it. 
 

 

Just wondering, success at teaching driving or happy ending? Would be good to know. : )

On 1/28/2021 at 8:07 PM, richard_smith237 said:

 

I’m not aware of a ‘learner licence here’... 

 

Thus, go to a quiet area, get her to learn the basics. 

Then go to a driving school (if you want)

Then get her a licence (the tests are basic, she should pass !)

 

Then real the real learning starts. Its probably best you don’t do the teaching unless you have the patience and tolerance of a saint and don’t frighten easily. 

Driving school taught my missus and took them for med cert 115b and the get the license. It was in Chanthaburi 5,500 b (20hr) their dual controlled car (and tested on a real road). The only thing i taught her was  driving forward and back  in a straight line on waste ground, but she would sneek out at 6am and drive up and down a 3klm quite road.

17 hours ago, Jaxxper said:

I would take the individual to a school, let them have some lessons then take and hopefully pass the test and get a licence. Then you can start to teach the rules of the road western style and engagement with traffic and other obstacles and junctions  actually out on the road legally. Just my view.

 

The school my missus went to, they can't really fail coz if you fail something you can just keep doing it over and over, she passed the computer questions first time, she said if you fail do it again, but i asked what if you spend all day and still fail? no problem you can go back the next day 

On 1/28/2021 at 8:55 PM, Natai Beach said:

I had a 100% success rate doing it. 

 

And how did the driving lessons turn out?

On 1/29/2021 at 12:25 PM, canthai55 said:

Our town car - Nissan NV 2001 Class 2+

Tokio Marine - Third Party - 500,000 per person / 10,000,000 per accident

6,500.25 THB including Gov't Insurance

 

The car in question is a 1997 Mazda Lantis...We don’t use it anymore, just drive it up and down the road every couple of weeks. I want to sell it because it’s just in the way. Have been keeping it for sentimental reasons because it’s my wife’s from new.

 

It seems you cannot get a decent cover on older cars third-party wise.

 

I’ve just gone with Roojai for our SUV 5 million third-party.

Speaking as a former UK ADI (Approved Driving Instructor) of 24 years I would suggest teaching her the basics of car control on private land. Getting used to steering input, judging the width & length of the car, accurate clutch control, stopping at a line, reversing, bay parking, etc. Then employ a school to teach to test standard (such as it is) and deal with the paperwork.

I read a variety of Thai websites concerning teaching unlicensed drivers.  Here's what I found.....cursory reading, and I'm not a Thai language expert:

If you have a Thai drivers license for 3 or more years, it is legal to teach someone how to drive.  

Most suggest talking with your insurance agent about liability in the event of an accident.

I taught my wife and my then 16 year old daughter how to drive a manual transmission.  My wife grew up in Little House in the Jungle (Prairie), so she had no idea what a gas, clutch, brake pedal was.  But while I was teaching her, our daughter, then 4 years old, learned those things.  Teaching my daughter was far easier than my wife.  In both cases, though, I found you need to put yourself in a 'teacher' mode, not a 'husband' or 'father' mode.  

I started both out in large parking lots to get the feel of things, then to quiet neighborhoods to practice the basics, including stopping and going on inclines as well as parallel parking (using cones).

After my wife got her license, she had one accident....someone rear ended her, not her fault.  Our daughter has had her license for 30 years....no accidents.

 

Oh dear....