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DAILY PILOT
SERVING THE NEWPORT – MESA – COMMUNITIES SINCE 1907 ON THE WEB: WWW.DAILYPILOT.COM THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2001
In BUSINESS
A2 Thursday 14, 2001
WORKING
Norma Adrianzen
She is driven in her work
SHE IS
A gatekeeper to that rite of passage, that coveted and somehow glamorously perceived privilege of getting someplace without the parents – a.k.a. driving.
THE YOUNGER, THE BETTER
Teenagers – they’re not so bad, says driving instructor Norma Adrianzen. In fact, they’re better drivers than most adults. They do it naturally, almost as if they’re riding a bike, and the four-year instructor for Newport Driving School said she never tires of their enthusiasm.
Except when it comes to the instructional videos.
“it’s too boring for them,” she said with a laugh.
Adrianzen has always worked in the field of driving There’s something about a sit-down office job that makes her feel trapped, she said. And there’s something about teaching teenagers that lifts her day. “When I’m with the kids, It’s more fun because they’re laughing and they’re always happy,” she said.
TEEN SPIRIT
When it comes to behind-the-wheel training, boys are usually less scared, Adrianzen said, and some want to do things their own way, not the proper way. A few girls appear petrified. Others demonstrate that they’ve known how to drive long before getting to the school.
Adrianzen sits beside the teen drivers as they roam local streets and sometimes even the freeways.
“It’s harder to teach adults,” she said. “The adults from foreign countries, they’re very difficult,”
DIFFERENT STROKES, DIFFERENT FOLKS
Take people from India, Adrianzen said as an example. They’re so used to driving on the other side of the road that sometimes their tendency is to go against traffic.
“And women from Saudi Arabia forbidden to drive. They don’t have any idea on what is red light, green light, yellow light, “the instructor said.
BACK-SEAT DRIVING
Adrianzen admits it’s hard to leave her work at the office. Every time she sits in the passenger’s seat – be it her friend’s or a relative’s – she can’t help but check how people are driving.
“I guess if you want to teach something, whether you like it or not, you get that into you,” she said.
– Story by Young Chang, photo by Greg Fry
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