sturmndraenger

Hey there, I'll address the question in your second post. I graduated from the M.A. in the Humanities Program (MAPH) at the University of Chicago, where I took two grad-level seminars on German Lit (both focusing mostly on the 18th-19th c.) In one seminar, the discussion took place in German (although we broke into English occasionally), and in the other, English only was used. Both seminars had mostly 1st and 2nd year doctoral students in Germanic Studies. The choice of language for each seminar appeared to be up to the professor and his students. I think a certain level of comfort in conversing in the language is expected of students entering Ph.D programs in German, but it doesn't mean that using it in class is absolutely necessary at first. As you progress, you will be expected to be more and more comfortable using it in academic settings (conferences, departmental gatherings, papers, teaching), but I'm sure that a transitional period applies. That's my $.02. I speak from an outsider's perspective in that 1) I wasn't actually a member of the department and wasn't training to be a Germanist, and 2) I didn't study German as an undergrad, but studied roughly to the 3rd-4th year undergrad level after getting my Bachelor's prior to beginning the M.A. program in order to be able to read advanced German texts, so I didn't have a strong background in spoken German.