MBA Essays
Brandon D. Hart
March 17, 1999
Final Revision
My Language Barriers
It all started on a cold and rainy night in Great Lakes, Illinois. A group of us had just arrived from O’Hare Airport, in Chicago, Illinois. Upon our arrival at the gate of the facility, our company commander greeted us. This person is in charge of making civilians into sailors in a period of nine weeks. I believe our company commander thought his job was to make our lives as unpleasant as possible. Immediately, he started yelling orders at us. “Follow the arrows on the bulkhead!” “Watch you step!” “Be careful, the deck is wet!” “If any of you sissies need to use the head, it’s forward of us on the port side.” Being an eighteen-year-old kid just out of high school, I had no idea what it was that man just said to me: “bulkhead, port side, forward, and head.” I was surely confused. I quickly learned, if I didn’t understand what it was he was telling us, he would make sure everyone around knew just how ignorant I was, by using his Navy lingo and expletives.
Our company commander had a diligent method in helping those who were unable to adapt to the new “lingo” being taught. It was simple, if you were having trouble remembering the terminology, he would tell you to “get strong,” which meant to drop and give fifty push-ups. Or when he really felt like being a jerk, he would order the recruit to do push-ups until “he got tired.” Possibly this was the commander’s way of mentally breaking us down, since we were never given any kind of classroom instruction on the terminology. My first week of basic training was the most difficult, since I probably did a thousand push-ups. In reality the sailor terminology wasn’t difficult to learn. Since all of us recruits were speaking the same lingo, or at least making an attempt. 本由无忧整理提供
Don’t be misled, though. There are many other naval terms I haven’t yet mentioned. For example, we couldn’t call each other by our names. We had to refer to each other as “shipmate,” or “mate.” Then there was rank structure. The lower ranking workers were called seaman. After a seaman gained some responsibility and leadership he became a petty officer. The highest of the enlisted were the chiefs. Port side meant left, and starboard side meant right. Aft and stern was a term used for back, and forward was a term used for front. Bulkhead was a wall, overhead was the ceiling, while the steel floor was called a deck? A stairwell was called a ladder. I really didn’t understand that term until I boarded my first ship. Then it all made sense. |
