Ms. Annette Fromel
Deputy Head of Modern Languages
„Wie heißt du?”
„Ich heiße Timmy. Wie heißt du?“
„Ich heiße Queena. Wie heißt du?“
„Ich heiße Vincent.“
The ball is passed from person to person. The atmosphere is relaxed, people are enjoying themselves and feel quite proud of themselves to be able to ask for each others names in German in their very first lesson.
The door opens and a latecomer comes in. The ball is passed to her.
„Wie heißt du?“
„Oh, no, I don’t speak German!“ She exclaims. She looks shocked and scared. But in less than a minute, she is also sitting there proudly after having uttered her first sentence in German.
I still remember my first class that I had as a full-time German lecturer. We had a big circle in our classroom in the Lee Dak Sum Building, which since then had been torn down and completely rebuilt, . And, because it was my first lesson that term, and the last time I taught I was still a part-timer teaching the summer course, where classes finished at 12:30, I let the students go at 12:30. Only after they had left did I realize that they had left 45 min early, and no one had said a thing!
But while this group happily left early, another group of students was waiting for me even when the Typhoon signal 8 was hoisted. I went to the classroom and told the students that they could go home, but no one budged. Everyone wanted to learn German despite the storm that was raging outside.
I believe that this is generally the attitude of our students studying our Modern Languages. They WANT to learn, they do this out of genuine interest, and not because they are forced to do so. This is why they listen attentively and despite the stresses they have with their major programs, they still take our classes.
Students can take our courses during the term or in the summer. The summer at CUHK is very intensive, with the content of two terms crammed into six weeks. Students and teachers get to be very close, and the highlight is the summer course party, where almost everyone wants to attend and we don’t have to worry about what to do with the leftovers, as there are none!
Besides teaching language courses, we also offer content or special courses. We have courses such as culture, literature and cinema. Students never cease to amaze me with their inquisitive minds and their enthusiasm. There is always something I can learn from them, such as how to make a great PPT! It is also very interesting to discuss some topics in depth such as different holiday traditions and the meaning behind them, or speak about the hidden sexual connotations that can be found in fairy tales, believe it or not!
For a few years now I have accompanied the Chung Chi Study Trip to Germany. Whilst studying the language at the Goethe Institute, they stayed in a youth hostel in the city of Mannheim which has around 300 000 inhabitants. Of course, they find this city tiny and are quite excited to spend the last week in Berlin.
But last year we found host families for all the students, and suddenly no one cares about the size of the city anymore. Going to Berlin? No, they say, we would rather stay in Mannheim, chat with our host family, cook for them or have another barbecue in the garden!
The personal contact is the thing that matters. For their studies, they study with their classmates and their teacher, and over the term, we all become a team. Our students also join the summer courses here and abroad, go on exchange, and come back transformed, with newfound knowledge of foreign cultures and a wider horizon. I truly believe that our students have an important contribution to make to society, and I continue to hope and trust that CUHK will also develop a major program in Modern Languages, to give languages and cultures the place they deserve in our modern society.