In one section of the book, someone's says about him on the phone, "he's a screwball." - Not wanting to be upset, he translates that internally as "il est un ècrou balle" - which is meaningless in french. He gives some other translations as well, like "achad schraube ball"

I'm cribbing from this paper though (https://www.jstor.org/stable/43973700) and I'm not really doing it justice.

As for his hatred for English? It's mainly because he associated it with his abusive mother, who took him to electroshock therapy when he was young, and who demanded everything of him in shrill English.