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All a student wanted was to learn to drive. But the lesson went far astray when his Soon Tien driving school instructor allegedly questioned his nationality, demoted Burmese and implied his mother was a mail order bride.
The driving school has apologized to the student, reimbursed his lesson fees and is “reconsidering his employment” of the self-employed instructor, identified only as Anthony, his owner confirmed to AsiaOne today (August 28).
The apology came after the student, who goes by the name u / emporius_opt_max, recounted his ordeal in a Reddit post on Tuesday (Aug 25), gaining traction online and receiving more than 2,600 upvotes. .
Wanting to get a Class 3 driver’s license, the student had hired Anthony through SgDrivingInstructors, an online platform that matches students with private driving instructors.
According to the student, the lesson got off to a rocky start when Anthony immediately assumed that he was doing a foreign license conversion course due to his deep complexion and Burmese ethnicity.
Despite expressing his discomfort, he was forced to drive in traffic before he even learned to use the clutch, he said.
That was not all. Throughout the lesson, Anthony allegedly made offensive remarks, such as insisting that Burmese drivers are “terrible.”
After discovering that the student’s mother was Burmese, Anthony allegedly asked, “How much did your father pay to buy your mother?”
He even stopped the lesson midway to verify that the student was from Singapore by verifying his identity card, the latter said.
After the lesson, the student approached SgDrivingInstructors to request a different instructor. However, they did not follow up, he said.
“Since my instructor didn’t change, I didn’t go to the lesson. I changed the date to another day and Soon Tien driving school made me pay $ 54 for ‘missing a lesson.’
He only managed to change instructors when he approached the driving school coordinator in person, he added.
“All I wanted to do was learn to drive a manual car, I don’t care about honest questions, but this whole episode left a very bad taste in my mouth that I don’t think I’ve ever had in Singapore.”
The student accepts the apology from the driving school
In addition to a personal apology and a refund, Soon Tien Driving School has also offered two free lessons to the student.
Anthony will not receive the fees for his lesson with the student, the driving school also confirmed.
Acknowledging Soon Tien Driving School’s response, the student said in a second Reddit post on Thursday (Aug 27): “I think if you made a mistake you should try to make it right, and that’s what Soon Tien has done.
“I personally think they’ve done just that and I’m willing to let it go with Soon Tien.”
However, he has yet to hear from SgDrivingInstructors, he said.
AsiaOne has reached out to SgDrivingInstructors for more information.
