Pidgin English Foreigners almost never bothered to learn the language of the natives while in Shanghai - many Shanghailanders were born and raised in the city and never spoke a word of Chinese, and those who did learn to speak some were considered slightly weird. They communicated with their Chinese servants and other menials in Pidgin English, a bastardised China Coast pot-pourri of mangled English, Chinese, Portuguese and Indian words. First, a lexicon, then some examples. Pidgin lexicon Pidgin poems 1 2 3 Longfellow in Pidgin Pidgin jokes