When you talk to Fabian Thaler, you can hardly believe that he is only 15 years old.
Not only does he look very mature, he also has exactly what his future should look like.
This is all the more remarkable because there is a tragic family story behind the young Eittinger.
Oberding - The 10a pupil at the Oberding Realschule recently received an award from the Bavarian Ministry of Culture: He completed the Cambridge exam language certificate with full points; in the past school year, only four Realschule pupils across Bavaria achieved this - with 2300 participants.
There are studies that suggest that metal music listeners are above average intelligent.
With Fabian Thaler, who loves death metal above all in addition to classical music and plays acoustic and electric guitar himself, that's definitely true: he finished ninth grade with an overall average of 1.0.
But Death Metal, which is mostly intoned in English, put aside: How do you as a 15-year-old secondary school student get a full score at language level B2? "I can memorize vocabulary relatively well and generally have a large vocabulary," says Thaler, referring to his upbringing. Without his parents having an appropriate English-speaking background, they raised him bilingually. "My mother always spoke English to me, my father German," reports the Eittinger, who then comes to speak of a tragic story: His father died when his son was just eight years old.
Thaler is an only child and says of himself that because of this stroke of fate he probably had a shortened childhood, which means that he is perhaps more mature than other classmates. “That steeled me,” he says, especially since there have been other deaths in the family after his father's death.
If you listen to Thaler, you automatically wonder why this impressive young man doesn't go to high school. “I wanted to avoid stress,” he explains. He doesn't want to study eight subjects at the same time. "I have to admit that I don't put the pressure on myself," says Thaler. He learns for every subject, but not in excess. "But at the end I always write a one - I hope that doesn't sound too conceited," he says with a smile. Thaler suspects that he is more mature than others, that one or the other classmate may find it harder to cope. However, he has many friends at the school.
Thaler has a clear idea of how things will continue for him after graduating next year: “I want to go to the FOS in Erding, do the general university entrance qualification and then study medicine in Heidelberg or Jena.” Thaler then wants to hang on for another five years to become a coroner.
The Eittinger loves series such as “Medical Detectives” or “Bones” and is fascinated by how, for example, a single hair can convict a perpetrator.
He probably watches the series in English, which would explain his strong performance in the subject?
“Only sometimes,” says Thaler.
Actually, he mostly looks in German.
“I don't see a great learning effect in looking at English,” he says.
The junior high school student has never been to England or the USA either, but at some point he wants to go there.
His favorite subject is English, even if he likes it, not by the way.
His favorite: IT.
In addition to Death Metal, his hobbies also include strength training, with a personal trainer in Freising.
He plays baseball with the Schwaig Red Lions and - of course - he also gives tuition in English at his school, for a little money as part of the “Students help students” program.
For his perfect performance in the internationally recognized Preliminary English Test (PET), Thaler received a visit to the school from Ministerial Commissioner Wilhelm Kurzeder.
He brought a certificate and a book voucher for 30 euros with the dedication: “Discover the world of English literature”.
Whether he sticks to it or doesn't prefer to read a German book?
“I don't know yet,” Thaler says with a laugh and adds that it could also be a book by the German forensic biologist Mark Benecke, which he particularly likes.
Which in turn goes well with forensic medicine.
And death metal.
