One of my German instructors, and I now have two, is trying to explain what merkwürdig means. She says, “It means strange, abnormal…it has a negative connotation” and she thinks for a minute. “Strange, like someone who stands in the square and sings and dances.” I, chuckling, say “that’s not strange, that’s fun, hahaha…” And the rest of the class seconds my notion, giggling at out straitlaced Swiss professor, from the perspective of Italy, Russia, Cape Verde and China. We teach her as much as she teaches us.
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