You can now say you're blur and it'll be perfectly acceptable English
By Pamela Chow
It was amusing enough that "la" and "kampong" were previously added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) - now, even more Singlish words have been inducted into the official this-is-acceptable-English list.
Now, Microsoft Word, please stop trying to correct my Singlish. If this can help cement Singaporean identity, I'd say it's rather "shiok" - I'm sorry, I mean, shiok.
(Photo: chapalanglah.tumblr.com)
5. Chinese helicopter
The opposite of “jiak kan tang” (Hokkien for “eat potato”, referring to a Singaporean Chinese who is fluent in only English and not Mandarin), Chinese helicopter is filed under draft additions to “Chinese”.
OED defines it as a “derogatory” term for “a Singaporean whose schooling was conducted in Mandarin Chinese and who has limited knowledge of English.
If you’ve ever wondered what the origin of this phrase was, it’s not “helicopter parenting”. According to the entry, it can be traced back to a story about an army recruit who described himself as “Chinese ‘helucated'”.
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