Talking with a bunch of my old friends yesterday, being all guys, we naturally talked about our experiences being men in green. I soon realised that A level students are indeed smartasses. I say this statement with a certain degree of certainty because sometimes, I think that the things that JC students learn in school imbue them with a certain sense of superiority over supposedly less intellectual life forms, aka poly graduates and army superiors... you get my point. And my last statement was a perfect example an "imbued sense of superiority." As a result, they shoot their mouth off when they shouldn't.
I say this because I have witnessed personally and heard stories of how A level students used their intellect and unwittingly ended up sounding like a smartass. The problem with that is, nobody likes a smartass, so they get their smartasses kicked.
Story #1
There was once a parade for a platoon of NS boys in some random camp in some random part of the island. The commanding officer was inspecting the platoon, when he saw one of the boys yawn. Walking up to that boy, he asked the boy "Soldier, why are you yawning in file? Do you know you're not supposed to do that?"
The reply? "Sir, I need oxygen."
Story #2
This was an incident I heard about in somebody's BMT. An Ah Beng walked up to a A lvl student and talked to him
Ah Beng: Hey what's up?
A lvl student: The ceiling.
Ah Beng thinks for a while before getting the not so funny joke.
Ah Beng: Nah beh you are a CCB.
A level student "No, I'm not. My name is Koh. Nice to meet you.
Story #3
There was once a platoon that was being punished for not falling in on time. The commander, a captain was furious. Not only did the platoon not fall in on time, they came in the wrong attire. He started on a lecture that lasted the better part of half an hour, before issuing his ultimatum.
Captain: I give you all 10 seconds. You go upstairs and change, and fall in company line. Do you think you can do that?
(no reply)
The captain points to a random soldier. Corporal, 10 seconds not enough? How long do you need to change?
Me: 10 minutes Sir!
Yeah, that soldier was me. In case you were wondering, yes I got my ass kicked for that. And as a result, my nickname for the rest of my NS life was Ironballs.