Reading German: Part One

Just got back from the first lesson of my Level 2 German Reading Skills course: it was a bit of a shock to the system, I can tell you! The main problem is that there isn't a level 1 reading skills class, which would have been my preferred starting point, but - really - I don't want to have to go through the whole 'which way is the airport/can I buy two beers and a sandwich please'. That would be of no use at all in my quest to acquire a reading knowledge of theological German. I need to be able to read it - speaking it be darned! That having been said, I last did German in earnest about 36 years ago, just before I dropped it in favour of the physics option (why did I do that?) at O-level. I have some familiarity, but not much, so that when the tutor asked us to introduce ourselves and tell a little about ourselves (in German), my mind went blank and I nearly passed out. Fortunately, she is excellent - patient, helpful and very encouraging. My frozen panic subsided a little as she went through the course path and aims and we started with some tense recognition and revision. I am quite lucky in that I know quite a lot about grammar, if not German grammar as such, and can understand the mechanics of it, thanks to many years of Greek and Latin, if not the precise application. So far so good. Most of the class were undergrads - English Lit. students mainly. There was one other mature student - married to a German (as I understood it) - who seemed to have a more than adequate grasp of the language. We completed a few simple exercises: simple for them, I mean, I struggled somewhat and it was only when we moved onto literary appreciation that I started to feel slightly more comfortable. I can read far more than I can speak, and lit.app.is a piece of cake, and a very enjoyable one at that. So, in my favour I have: a very, very rudimentary knowledge of German; a sound grasp of the universal principles of grammar and a feel for literary writing. By the end of the session I'd started to feel more like I could do this rather than dumbstruck horror. We have a little homework and actually, as I look at it, I'm starting to feel quite a bit more positive about the whole experience!