By Anne Lo
It was ten o’clock in the morning, and I had just finished teaching my Oral Training class at the DFLL English Camp. I was waiting outside room 305 of the AV Center, where Assistant Professor Christoph Merkelbach (known to most students as Chris) was to teach German the next period. I looked around me and saw several other people waiting excitedly—one of them was Betty, who was also just done with EOT and is actually taking German as a second foreign language. So what was she doing here? “I’ve never seen him before!” she exclaimed. Well, that’s understandable. In fact, while the World Cup was going on, some people actually thought he was Oliver Khan (Look at the picture. Do you see a resemblance?) On that day Chris was to teach our campers very basic German, and I thought I might as well stick around and see for myself what he’s like as a teacher and learn some German, too. I’ll be fine. After all, he won’t be too hard on me, knowing I’m just “sticking around,” right? Wrong! It turned out that Chris did not give me VIP treatment and I was also expected to answer questions when called on, just like all the other kids in the class. When Chris asked me what I thought of the class (“Be honest, no politeness,” he said), I told him that I did not expect I’d be busted twice, and that I almost died. He laughed and said that’s just what he does. “Even if I have a really big class with seventy students, I’d ‘bust’ them every one!” Hmm…maybe that’s what I should’ve done in my EOT class. It was noon already, so Chris and I decided to have lunch at the outdoor-cafe beside the Kung-tung Building. A few minutes after ordering, they announced that my meal was ready at the counter; but before I could stand up and go get it, Chris had already gotten it for me. This gentlemanly gesture had me awe-struck, when asked why he did that he answered, “My mother taught me to be polite.” When we started chatting, naturally the first thing I asked about was what I had noticed first about him—his great clothes. My friends and I regard Chris as a fashion icon: Chris’s style is always simple and timeless—just the way he likes it. Once upon a time, back in Germany, all his clothes were black, which made washing very easy. “But someone told me it’s warmer in Taiwan and it’s not suitable to wear black all the time, so now I wear more colors.” This proved to be true. On that day he was wearing an army green sweater, blue and white pinstriped pants, black leather shoes, and sporting a small bright orange bag. However, Chris was very modest when it came to this subject, and said he didn’t think he’s a very good person to give advice on that. Still, he has a favorite brand—“On Sale.” But surely he has a secret to looking great at all times! To this he just smiled and said, “It takes practice.” At this point we’d finished lunch and Chris asked me if I wanted milk. I said yes, and he was gone for a while, then came back with two little bottles of milk and two cupcakes. “A little dessert for you,” he said. Sweet! Then he went on to talk more about himself. He had been a choirboy, a nurse, a cook, a waiter, and a doorman at a bar in Berlin where he wore black leather pants and a black tank top. He had also been to mainland China, where he had taken Chinese Studies (漢學) and taught German at Tongji University in Shanghai. Now, aside from school, he spends his days reading a lot. He sings in the Taipei Philharmonic Choir, and uses the TV only to watch opera videos. As for that Eminem-y kinda “spunk” of his, it came from his days at university. “We were radical! We had lots of demonstrations and even made the Minister of the Educational Board of Berlin retire!” a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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