I grew up using pidgin english, a special creole version mixing-up English, Hawaiian, Chinese and Japanese.  The latter two ethnicities were the earliest sugar workers from the mid-1880's.  Here is a 40-year old book,   Pidgin to da Max , by Douglas Simonson. If you're local, this form of conversation was necessary to fit-in to your neighborhood society.  I lived in Kakaako, where at least 90% of the occupants were Japanese.  Thus, our pidgin was somewhat different. Pidgin was a hindrance when you left for the mainland, for this variety of speech impediment labeled you as different, and probably inferior.  Hated speech, and was intimidated from saying much in classes at Stanford.  However, there was one course that was giving me the most trouble, Freshman English.  I got C's at best on my first two essays.  My speaking was not only tarnished, but this carried over into what I read and wrote.  My teacher called me in one day and inquired ...