Some Interesting Facts of NS/ Army/ SAF
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some interesting facts.
1978 Hokkien banned as language of instruction
Hokkien was commonly used as a language of instruction for trainees. From Oct 78, all instructions are to be passed only in either English, Malay or Mandarin.
1981 Introduction of SAF 11B
All 11As were phased out by 1983 and new 11Bs were issued to all military personnel.
1983 Rewarding the Hardworking Private
A new rank was introduced in 1983 - the Private (First Class) - to recognise the good service in the SAF.
1984 Army cookhouse considers private caterers
In Mar 84, civilian caterers were considered to replace the cooks due to the declining number of youths entering national service.
1986/87 Most Courteous Unit Telephone Exchange Competition
In Sep 86, Changi Camp Telephone Exchange was awarded the Most Courteous Unit Telephone Exchange award.
1993 No smoking in public for SAF personnel
From May 93, all SAF personnel were banned from smoking in public. From Aug 93 those who failed to abide were fined $50 for the first offence and $100 for subsequent offences.
1994 ROD changes to ORD
From 1 Jul 94, The term "Run-Out-Date" was changed to "Operational Ready National Service Date".
1995 New Physical Training (PT) Kit
The new PT kit was introduced in 1995 to replace the old camouflage version. The new one was lighter and more comfortable. (mod's note: lighter and more comfortable? LOL!
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more facts @ Army Museum website -
Cool.
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I love the last fact and Gordon's personal touch
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i think it would have been dam interesting if hokkien was still allowed as a mode of instruction.
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Wan toh chiu! (Ke Kiri Puseng)Originally posted by sir sickolot II:i think it would have been dam interesting if hokkien was still allowed as a mode of instruction. -
Originally posted by Gordonator:
this one is kinda ironic too. i think the main reason is the inedible state of the food at that time. if the ministry of health is to do conduct a check on the food served, confirm will fail terribly.
1984 Army cookhouse considers private caterers
In Mar 84, civilian caterers were considered to replace the cooks due to the declining number of youths entering national service. -
Originally posted by Gordonator:this one is kinda ironic too. i think the main reason is the inedible state of the food at that time. if the ministry of health is to do conduct a check on the food served, confirm will fail terribly.
i enlisted in 2000 so i never got to try army cooked food but
my cousin in law always swears he's a good cook when i question about that lol -
Another interesting fact...
the current SAF Smart Card... is officially not called 11b. there is a 3 digit number on the card.. can someone help me look and update? my "11b" is not with me now. -
my cook is ok.. nice guy too.. always give mi extra food if i ask them lor..Originally posted by oldbreadstinks:
i enlisted in 2000 so i never got to try army cooked food but
my cousin in law always swears he's a good cook when i question about that lol -
yup. the current ones, they outsource to those chem and bio companies to check. my aunt signed a contract to do for some camps in sg. i know some are selarang, tekong sch 1,2 and old sispec. cuz i always see her there. lol.Originally posted by Gordonator:this one is kinda ironic too. i think the main reason is the inedible state of the food at that time. if the ministry of health is to do conduct a check on the food served, confirm will fail terribly. -
I dunno about SFI, but my camp always had good food.
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Isn't the outsourcing to DSTA who further outsource again?Originally posted by Unknown_X:yup. the current ones, they outsource to those chem and bio companies to check. my aunt signed a contract to do for some camps in sg. i know some are selarang, tekong sch 1,2 and old sispec. cuz i always see her there. lol.
But ya, they are very strict, they even swab rubber seals of the fridge for algae growth.
But my worry is, for the Food Contractors to ensure cleaniness, they use whole range of chemicals too.
Dishwashing is done by at least 3-4 harsh chemicals.
Food preparation surface and Fridge cleaning is by bleach..
I cannot be entirely ensured that we did not eat a trace amount of those chemicals -
That was because many NCOs in those days never completed secondary education.I find it was irritating when one of my section commanders pefered to use hokkien and he didnt like me because I only speak English and would reply to his hokkien English.So I tiok marked during BMTOriginally posted by sir sickolot II:i think it would have been dam interesting if hokkien was still allowed as a mode of instruction.
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Ponders, i prefer your old man avatar.
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This tells u to go learn some dialectsOriginally posted by Short Ninja:That was because many NCOs in those days never completed secondary education.I find it was irritating when one of my section commanders pefered to use hokkien and he didnt like me because I only speak English and would reply to his hokkien English.So I tiok marked during BMT 
Most sg ppl these days are already lossing their ability to speak and understand their own dialects which i feel is a real pity. -
Which dialects should one learn? The standard army dialect of Hokkien, or others like teochew, hakka, cantonese, hainanese, etc etc ? Then we have the problem of which discrimination because you dun speak the instructors dialect.Originally posted by dkcx:This tells u to go learn some dialects Most sg ppl these days are already lossing their ability to speak and understand their own dialects which i feel is a real pity.
The onus is on the instructor to speak english or her can just keep quiet. -
Locally most people speak hokkien or cantonese and they don't have to be your dialect to know them. Knowing those 2 you would be able to communicate with the majority i feel.Originally posted by crosshairs:Which dialects should one learn? The standard army dialect of Hokkien, or others like teochew, hakka, cantonese, hainanese, etc etc ? Then we have the problem of which discrimination because you dun speak the instructors dialect.
The onus is on the instructor to speak english or her can just keep quiet. -
Some of my guys were quite surprised when I broke into fluent Hokkien with them.
And they thought that since I was a kentang-kia, I would never have known how to speak Hokkien. -
Kentang kia...Originally posted by LazerLordz:Some of my guys were quite surprised when I broke into fluent Hokkien with them.
And they thought that since I was a kentang-kia, I would never have known how to speak Hokkien. -
I didnt say I cant speak hokkien or other dialects I am just saying that I looked down on those NCOs and Officers who were not properly educated unlike the SAF of todayOriginally posted by dkcx:This tells u to go learn some dialects Most sg ppl these days are already lossing their ability to speak and understand their own dialects which i feel is a real pity. -
The above statement may not be entirely true......The reason many, but not the all, NCOs in those days do not speak proper English and have to resort to Hokkien......was they came from Chinese stream schools.....such as Chung Cheng, Anglican High, Duman and many more. These Chinese NCO's btw, are highly educated, majority [those who can afford] continued their studies at Nanyang U. So dun make fun of these ppl.Originally posted by Short Ninja:That was because many NCOs in those days never completed secondary education.I find it was irritating when one of my section commanders pefered to use hokkien and he didnt like me because I only speak English and would reply to his hokkien English.So I tiok marked during BMT
And since Mandarin as a 2nd language was not taken seriously in those days, many English stream students did badly in their Chinese....so only way for these Mandarin speaking NCOs to communicate is with Hokkien, which was universal to most Chinese. Also, the culture at that time for English stream NCOs was when u wanna scold someone, do it in Hokkien. It adds colour, realism and meaning to the words!! Scolding someone in Mandarin does'nt hold much meaning......hahahaha!
There's also Cantonese speaking company/platoon in those days, Malay and Tamil too.....do u noe that? -
Originally posted by FireAndHell:The above statement may not be entirely true......The reason many, but not the all, NCOs in those days do not speak proper English and have to resort to Hokkien......was they came from Chinese stream schools.....such as Chung Cheng, Anglican High, Duman and many more. These Chinese NCO's btw, are highly educated, majority [those who can afford] continued their studies at Nanyang U. So dun make fun of these ppl.
And since Mandarin as a 2nd language was not taken seriously in those days, many English stream students did badly in their Chinese....so only way for these Mandarin speaking NCOs to communicate is with Hokkien, which was universal to most Chinese. Also, the culture at that time for English stream NCOs was when u wanna scold someone, do it in Hokkien. It adds colour, realism and meaning to the words!! Scolding someone in Mandarin does'nt hold much meaning......hahahaha!
There's also Cantonese speaking company/platoon in those days, Malay and Tamil too.....do u noe that?
When you say highly educated do you mean 'O' levels at least ? Because in the 60s to early 80s if you are a regular NCO with 3 or 4 'O' Levels you can go to OCS.Sorry but at that time I didnt meet any regular senior NCOs or Enchik who finiished their secondary education with 'O'level passes and my OC barely passed his A-level.Hokkien is handy at times when you meet hokkien peng and I agree that cursing in hokkien has more effect than any other languages that I know in Singapore but to try to give individual intruction to an English speaking soldier is absurd.I have never ever heard of a Cantonese speaking company but have encounted a 'Malay Platoon'(that is most of the troopers are ethinc malays).As for the tamils .........you put two Indian together anywhere and after 10 minutes you get a platoon>
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lol ya lor. my frens all also surprised i grew up in english speaking family and taking degree in mass comms. in camp, i always dialect and broken singlish. lol.
ponders: im not sure leh. my aunt also doing for them some checks, see whether the food got bacteria or watever one. not sure myself. -
I did my NS in the early 70s. During this period, there were as many Chinese educated "A" level students as there were English educated NCOs.Originally posted by Short Ninja:
And Yes, we do have Cantonese speaking platoon/company in BMT. IIRC, Cantonese-Purple coloured name tags. Hokkien-Red, English-Green, Tamil-Yellow. Can't remember Malay tag though..hmm....
Those Cantonese, Hokkien, Tamil speaking soldiers usually have low education, like Pri6 and below. So they can't converse Mandarin or English at all. These ppl, btw, came with tatoos all over their bodies.......noe wat these stand for?? Dun play play with this group.....if u wanna live out your NS days...hehehe.
If one can speak several languages or dialact, one's name tag, which was Green, symbolising English language, will have small coloured strips stuck at one corner of the Green name tag. So, the more color strips indicated this person can speak several languages or dialacts.
Once the person passed out from BMT, he will wear this name tag until his ROD [last time called ROD......now ORD].