Yoshi, my visiting Japanese scholar, carried with him a little book of Everyday English Speech, out of which he was able to construct social uses ranging from the mildly unconventional to the downright alarming. 'ARRO NASH!', he would bellow as I entered Monday's seminar, and on Friday afternoons, 'Have a GOOD one, ya HEAH?' - coyly, concupiscently, as though dismissing me, his pale grey crumbling mentor, to a furtive weekend of unspeakable amatory and alcoholic excess. We never quite got the hang of each other, code-wise. I think he may have been disappointed at my failure to respond in kind with 'Hey, ma MAN!' or 'You betchar-ASS!', professional courtesies not often heard by the banks of the Trent. For my part, I had some difficulty in understanding his general observations on life and literature, although I was very sorry when he went home. It diminished the hilarity of the shires.

LRB 10 January 1991 | PDF Download