'Chinese helicopter': Singlish OED entry baffles Singaporeans


As a native speaker of Singlish, I was proud to hear 19 Singaporean terms have made it to the Oxford English Dictionary.
"Ang moh" (local term for a Caucasian), chilli crab (our national dish) and "sotong" (another local term referring to a squid, but also used to describe ignorance) were just a handful of the words chosen for this year's update.
But what the heck is a "Chinese helicopter"?
"A Singaporean whose schooling was conducted in Mandarin Chinese and who has limited knowledge of English," the OED's official definition reads.

What talking you?

But like me, many of my fellow countrymen have been baffled by the appearance of the word.
"This is the first time I've come across the term," said Joseph Lim, 29, on Facebook.
"If there was no definition provided, I would have thought it was a sexual term."
Other Singaporeans, like Twitter user Chew Yiheng agreed. "Is that word even Singlish? I feel suaku", he said, referring to the local term for a country bumpkin, someone not well-informed.