There is a story of a British official who was asked to marry a young French sailor and a Chinese girl-none of the three knowing much about the other languages. The official said to the girl, 'This man want to take you home-side make wife. Can do, no can do?' She said shyly, 'Can do', and the official pronounced them man and wife. Pidgin English, though sometimes regarded as' baby talk', is a useful language spoken in a large part of Pacific islands. About 30 to 50 million people speak some form. of it. Pidgin English we know today was born on the Chinese coast 300 years ago when the Western nations first began to trade there. The Western merchants and the Chinese communicated with each other by using Westerner's words and Chinese sentence patterns. The result became known as 'business' language, or because the closest Chinese could come to pronounce business as 'bishin' or later 'bijin'--at last 'pidgin'. It has nothing to do with a pigeon though it's sometimes spelt that way. What do you think the British official's words mean?