*WEEEEE-WUU-WEEEEEEEET!* Right on!
Yun's got the situation zeroed in here. Guys, there's a lot of
stuff that isn't represented on this thread, and it's not mainly
about race even though it could look that way. Now I know it's a
mouthful coming from me, but please, let's not flame here.
Okay, [email protected]_arms, we know that renouncing PR is a possibility, and
maybe Bear could either confirm or disprove that. On the safe side,
let's look at the possibility of you entering NS.
kopiosatu's got it pretty spot-on there. In BMT, what you're going
to get is a bunch of bewildered recruits, with maybe a couple with
enough of their wits about them to get the rest of the guys
organised. As such, they're not really going to have the time to
discriminate. However, there are a couple of other things that you
do need to look out for, and I'm writing this as a description of
the situation without reference to your personality or abilities -
that's something for later. Yun's already covered the important
stuff, and the objective of my post is to cover practical survival
skills in BMT.
First and foremost, you need to be a team player (as cliched as the
term sounds). Be alert and always make a point to know what you're
supposed to be doing. Everybody's in the same boat and most of the
everything that you do requires everyone to work together, so if
someone isn't on the same page as everybody else and things go
wrong, whoever dropped the ball is going to cop it from the other
guys.
Second, it's not a very intellectual environment - talk about
anything other than what's at hand and chances are that you'll be
pegged as a gobby git. Referring back to the first point, focus
upon what's "right here, right now", and you'll be OK. In the
unlikely situation that there's nothing for you to do, keep an eye
out to see if anybody needs a hand with anything - for example, if
a bunch of guys from your platoon are tasked to move some
funiture/equipment and you happen to be available to help, jump in
and help moving even though you weren't asked. It comes back to the
team player thing: do what you can to help make things easier for
everyone and you're guaranteed to get a lot of friends.
Coming back to the lack of an intellectual environment, learn to
speak the language. I'm not talking about Hokkien, I'm talking
about the issues that are of immediate concern to the guys around
you. Don't intellectualise it, but instead translate everything
into actions that can be carried out immediately or within the
constraints of the situation. That's the language that all recruits
speak - practical solutions to the problem at hand. If it's too
conceptual rather than concrete, or if the suggestions are too
vague of impossible to carry out, they're just going to tune out
because it does not offer them hope of solving the problem.
Perhaps your biggest concern will be the principle in BMT of
breaking you down before building you up. You will be harangued,
teased and insulted, but don't take it personally. The object is to
level out differences between the recruits and then mould them into
an integrated unit, and it will be done through equal-opportunity
discrimination. At the end of the day, the quickest way of getting
people off your back is to focus on what's been covered in the
three paragraphs above.
Remember one basic working principle: the nail that sticks out will
be hammered in. Be the "gray man" and blend into the background -
if you either fail to pull your weight or try to be the hero (which
I doubt you'll be motivated to do, but it requires mention
nonetheless), you will be noticed, and attention is the last thing
you could possibly want.
This next one is a tall order: don't whinge and moan, and don't
lose your temper. Like I said, everybody's in the same boat and
they've got to grit their teeth and bear it. The last thing they
want to hear is someone else's complaint. As far as everyone else
is concerned, the only thing to justifiably lose your temper about
is something that affects everybody, not just yourself. Again, it
comes back to the team player issue.
Remember, what you've got here is a bunch of guys who are very
unwillingly lumped together and required to work as a team.
Nobody's happy about it (although probably to a lesser extent than
yourself), but everybody's just trying to make it through. It's a
very Darwinian environment and if you're a a team player, your
ethnicity will not be an issue and as a bonus, you'll make some
fast friends.
I know that the above is a tall order, but it's coming from someone
who had to learn it, and learn it right quick. I got dragged
kicking and screaming into NS (yes, kopi, you do need your head
checked - $142 for professional consultation services please!
), didn't know the meaning of being
a team player, thought much more in conceptual than concrete terms,
and whinged nonstop. Thankfully for myself, there were a few guys
who did the same thing more obviously than I did and ended up at
the bottom of the food chain, so I managed to vicariously learn
what not to do. Right now, especially with the luxury of time, I'd
encourage you to do the same.
