Most of my students work in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.
They start learning German because they need it for daily life or for work.
But Daniel’s story is very different.
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When he started learning German, he wasn’t living in Europe.
He was in China, working full-time as an Outdoor Educator — often in remote areas with unstable Wi-Fi — and trying to study German through the Great Firewall.
He had just finished his degree in philosophy and wanted to apply for a Master’s program in AI Ethics at the University of Bremen.
The problem?
He needed to pass the C1 exam within a year to be admitted — and at that point, his only experience with German was a few months of Duolingo.
In November 2024, Daniel joined From Zero to C1 in 25 Minutes a Day with a very clear goal:
to reach C1 by October 2025, the deadline for his university admission.
What followed was an extraordinary journey — from A1 to B2 to C1, all within a single year.
When I interviewed Daniel, I asked him how he did it, what obstacles he faced, and what helped him stay consistent despite such difficult conditions.
Here’s our conversation:
What did you try before starting my program, “From Zero to C1”?
Like many people, I started with Duolingo.
According to my very frozen streak, that was Tuesday, March 5th, 2024.
At the time, I was still deciding where to do my Master’s, so I just dabbled with it for a few months before actually committing to German around mid-to-late July.
When I finally did commit, it was already a bit late — I had just over a year to get from Duolingo’s “early A1” level to C1 for the 2025/26 winter semester.
So, I took the traditional Chinese route: memorizing tons of flashcards (most of which I probably don’t even remember :-)) on an app called “Dehelper” — or in Chinese, 德语助手.
Between Dehelper and Duolingo, I wasn’t happy with my progress, so I turned to proper online courses and came across From Zero to C1 in 25 Minutes a Day.
It was exactly what I was looking for: structured, supported, and successful.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while learning German?
Scouring over the Great Firewall of China. I can’t emphasize enough how hard it is to find good online material that doesn’t follow the traditional Chinese education system — even with a VPN.
And for me, learning in Chinese is already hard enough; trying to learn German fromChinese… well, you might as well ask a blind man to shoot movies.
Google might load one out of every five attempts; YouTube maybe one out of ten if you’re lucky.
On top of that, my job often takes me to places with unstable Wi-Fi, so the biggest challenge wasn’t motivation — it was access.
I wanted to learn, but often just couldn’t. Thankfully, I was able to download almost everything from herrprofessor.com, so reviewing offline became my best friend.
What kind of program were you looking for?
I wanted a program that would guarantee results as long as I put in the effort.
A lot of courses out there are super comprehensive — and I’m sure if I took ten lessons a day, I could’ve maybe reached C1… in about five years. But I wasn’t trying to become an expert in Germanistik; I just wanted to learn German efficiently.
From Zero to C1 gave me the perfect balance of depth and conciseness. I could learn in 25 minutes what might have taken me 25 hours elsewhere — the “Toothbrush” lesson being a prime example.
I’d say my goals from B2 to C1 were pretty much the same as from A1 to B2. Now that I’m at uni and taking what I think is a free (no one’s asked me for money yet…) Goethe Präsenzkurs, I’m really starting to see the value of personalized learning.
With the podcasts, I don’t have to sit through twenty other people taking turns and making mistakes I got over months ago.
The Hausaufgaben in the Goethe course also feels pretty dry and doesn’t give me the flexibility that From Zero to C1 did.
Honestly, I think actually finishing the B2 content will be more useful than the Goethe course they’re offering me right now.
What was your goal when you started?
My goal when I started was C1 before October 2025.
Unfortunately, I made it two days late on Oct. 2, but still in time for the Immatrikulations deadline.
What struck you the most when you first came across my program?
There were several things that really drew me to From Zero to C1 over other programs — honorable mentions go to the free daily Verb-Juggling podcasts, Dan’s success story, and of course, the Toothbrush!
I’ve never seen anything else that makes German grammar look so effortless. Never.
The ability to condense normally complex language rules, structures, and systems into something clear and intuitive was a major selling point.
But what really struck me most was what Manuel said about students rushing ahead to the advanced modules without building a strong foundation.
Being half-Chinese, I learned Chinese at home before formally studying for the HSK (Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì (汉语水平考试) — the official Chinese Proficiency Test) and jumping straight into level 4 (around B2).
That leap was jarring because my knowledge base was fractured — I knew random bits and pieces from HSK 1–6 (HSK 1–2: Beginner (roughly A1–A2); HSK 3–4: Intermediate (roughly B1–B2); HSK 5–6: Advanced (roughly C1–C2)), which caused all sorts of problems later (and honestly still does).
So when I committed to learning German, I wanted a course with strong foundations that could take me all the way.
The biggest thing is how much more flexible it is compared to any Präsenzkurs. I can listen to the podcasts whenever I want, and the grammar reviews, cheat sheets, and formulaic tools like the Toothbrush are such a compact, efficient way to learn.
Looking back, I honestly feel so lucky to have stumbled upon From Zero to C1. The way the content is presented is incredibly efficient — and while I might have been able to find similar materials scattered online, there’s no way I could’ve organized them so neatly into a single bundle the way Herrprofessor does.
What was the biggest difference between my program and the way you had learned German before?
From Zero to C1 is predominantly a podcast-based course. Honestly, I was pretty skeptical at first — not to mention my general disinterest in podcasts altogether. I mean, I don’t even listen to music, so why would I suddenly take to podcasts?
It also seemed to have very little interaction or direct output compared to Duolingo and Dehelper.
But that’s actually by design. Unsurprisingly, you can’t speak German if you’ve never heard it spoken, and you can’t write German if you’ve never seen it written.
In school, we’re traditionally trained to produce something as soon as possible — to show that we’ve learned.
Transitioning to “input first, output second” took some getting used to, but hey, the results speak for themselves.
I started out with Duolingo (still keeping my streak alive to this day!), and while Duolingo, Dehelper, and the Präsenzkurs I’m doing now each have their own benefits, the podcast series is unique because it’s such a passive yet high-gain way of learning. It’s low-energy but surprisingly effective.
I think it’s because when you listen to Mauricio, Shaelom, Dan, usw., they make the same kinds of contextual mistakes you do, since we’re all following the same program together.
In my current Präsenzkurs, for example, some people are still making Dativ mistakes or confusing wenn with als — things we covered back in A2, I think?
But with the podcasts, there’s this homogenous learning rhythm: if Dan makes a mistake, it’s probably in the same area I would too.
Manuel has this really clever pedagogical way of almost “pre-testing” you on new material — like introducing Futur II by asking you to form future sentences before actually teaching it.
It’s subtle, but it keeps you engaged and curious without spoiling what’s coming next.
What results have you achieved so far through my program?
First, I’ve managed to pass the B2 checkpoint on my journey to C1. From my own perspective, it didn’t feel like a huge deal — especially since I barely scraped by with 63% (19/30) in Lesen. But later I found out I actually had the second-highest score, so maybe the paper was just hard?
A few days before my test, my colleague overheard a Live Call with Dan and said, “Wow! You can actually speak German — like actually speak speak!”
That moment really hit me.
I realized that if you just follow the program and put in the time, your efforts won’t betray you.
A few months later, I passed my C1!
Honestly, I had hoped to do this back in November last year, but around July or August I started to feel just how deep the gap between B2 and C1 really is — and I began to doubt myself.
I even called Dan halfway through the exam during the break, with tears in my eyes, because of how tough C1 actually was.
But (although I really, really can’t discount luck in my case), I genuinely believe that by sticking with the program, going from A1 to C1 — on paper! — is absolutely possible within a year.
How did you prepare for your B2/C1 exam?
So, as many will probably tell you, everyday German is very different from test or exam German.
In real life, if you didn’t catch something, you can always whip out, “Entschuldigung, können Sie das bitte wiederholen?” or just go, “Häää???” (which is surprisingly effective — though watch the context).
In an exam, if you start daydreaming, you just have to pray that C is the right answer.
For me, with my exam on May 20th, I finished the B1 content in early April and started preparing then.
I still had the B2 playlist, which I mostly used as background music between study sessions (B2 is very different from A1–B1), but Manuel said you can pass B2 with just B1, so that’s what I mainly focused on.
My B2 exam prep was broken into four sections: Lesen, Hören, Schreiben, and Sprechen, with each day focused on a different part. Reality was a little different, though — aka rushed.
My work is unpredictable (lots of last-minute call-ins — but hey, how else am I going to finance my Sperrkonto?), so I didn’t start Sprechen practice with Dan until just under two weeks before the exam.
For Schreiben, I had a bit more leeway and sent my first texts to Manuel in April, then about once every fortnight after that.
For Hören and Lesen, I mostly did mock tests from Mit Erfolg zum Goethe-Zertifikat B2 — all the topics came from that book.
From B2 to C1 required a completely different approach. Since I’d already taken a Goethe exam before (B2), I basically stopped learning everyday German and focused on exam German.
I relistened to all the podcasts from A1 to B2 during breaks, but actual studying was mostly just going through mocks and memorizing templates for writing and speaking.
I was basically “playing the system” because I was desperate. I even changed my morning alarms to a voice recording of myself reading my templates aloud!
How long did it take you to prepare for your B2/C1 exam?
If we’re talking pure exam prep, that would be April, after I finished the B1 content. But preparing for my B2 exam can’t really be understood in isolation from all the work beforehand.
I’d argue that my prep actually started back in November when I first began Manuel’s A1 course.
As for C1, if there are two things anyone thinks they know about Germany before coming here, it’s that Germans are always punctual and that people probably fill out more bureaucratic papers than they drink beer.
In reality, only one of those is true — and unfortunately, it’s the latter.
The Deutsche Bahn is almost never on time, and at least here in Bremen, punctuality isn’t super strict either.
But keeping to the point: after my B2 exam, I spent almost all my time dealing with German bureaucracy until July (and even after arriving in Germany, I still spent a lot of time on it!).
So it’s kind of hard to measure exactly how much time I spent preparing for C1. I’d say B2 to C1 took about three months (July–October), but honestly, dealing with Kleinanzeigen, WG-gesucht, emails, and reading documents probably stretched those three months to five.
What was the most difficult part of the exam?
Paying attention. I’m not sure how it is in other countries, but in China, you have to be in the exam hall at least 20 minutes before each Teil of the exam.
While you’re waiting, you’re not allowed to revise, speak, or really do anything — maybe just admire whatever decorations are on the wall.
You’re just sitting there. Waiting.
It’s almost psychological warfare. By the time you actually start the exam, you’ve had a long stretch to marinate in your own nerves, which really messes with your concentration.
For C1, it was definitely Hören!
I was sure I completely bombed that section, but I must have gotten really lucky.
The stimmt nicht and dazu wird nichts gesagt questions always tripped me up because negation and omission (especially in philosophical texts) can be logically tricky.
The electronic test was also a bit finicky since I’d always done paper-based tests before.
Which specific resources were the most helpful to you along the way?
Fluency tests for grammar. Reddit’s WriteStreakGerman for Schreiben templates.
Dino Lernt Deutsch (at the beginning) for Lesen.
Blue Lock (and other anime/cartoons) for Hören.
The Shower — for debates in my head — for Sprechen.
From B2 to C1, I’d have to say ChatGPT.
I few-shot prompted ChatGPT with Modelltests and examiner remarks to create a Goethe feedback thread, then had it generate an error profile from my mistake trends.
After that, it produced Goethe-length texts with targeted questions in the exact Goethe format — for Lesen, for example: 8 questions for Teil 1, 7 for Teil 2, 8 for Teil 3, 7 for Teil 4.
Hören was a bit trickier to train.
I mostly used the B2 podcasts but supplemented them with content from ARD.
Dan was a lifesaver for Sprechen in the “Pass your official Exam” program, and we had biweekly meetings for about two months.
How did you stay focused and motivated throughout the program?
Well, there’s always the carrot and the stick.
Honestly, I committed to learning German way too late. It was only after graduating that I really focused on it — and if I didn’t reach C1 before October 1st, I’d have had to delay my academic journey by several more months.
A lot of my classmates are only a year or so away from finishing their PhDs, and here I am, not even having started my Master’s.
I know it’s not a race, but technically, in my field of AI ethics, every month — let alone every year — that gets delayed makes it harder to reverse the damage of AI’s Value Alignment Base “Original Sin” Code, and the more we deepen our existential threat of falsehood.
On the lighter side, once you find content that genuinely interests you, it’s hard not to stay motivated. For me, I probably had an imbalance of Hören compared to Sprechen, simply because I was hooked on the (various) anime I was watching at the time.
I had too much to lose.
I’d worked for years to save enough money for my Sperrkonto, and with transaction fees and a skyrocketing exchange rate thanks to Trump, failing C1 would have meant delaying everything — possibly even living on the streets.
But while finances were a motivator, my main drive was far bigger: the urgent need to tackle AI ethics.
AI is expanding exponentially, influencing everything from daily life to global systems, while ethical oversight lags dangerously behind.
Every month of delay increases the risk that AI systems will be deployed with flawed or misaligned values — small mistakes now could have catastrophic consequences soon.
It’s like a faulty gene for humanity: a single error in AI ethics today could shape the future irreversibly.
I can’t wait for someone else to fix it.
The current “value alignment” efforts are often well-intentioned but ultimately counterproductive.
That’s why I need to act now — to make sure AI doesn’t spiral into outcomes that could harm everyone, including my own life.
How did you manage to balance a full-time job with learning German on the side?
My schedule is definitely on the extreme end.
As an Outdoor Educator, when you’re working, you’re really working. You’re generally with the kids from the moment you open your eyes in the morning (unless they wake you up during a bout of homesickness in the night) until you finally close them at night.
Sometimes you don’t have to sleep with the kids, but after 16 continuous hours together, you fall asleep before you even think about studying German.
When you’re hiking up a mountain without Wi-Fi — or any notes, electronic or physical, lest they get destroyed — practicing becomes nearly impossible.
But when you’re off, you’re completely off.
On average, it’s a week full-on, then a week full-off. The last month before the winter holidays was fully packed — back-to-back workdays for an entire month.
During a “full-on” week, you might squeeze in a few minutes here and there to keep your Duolingo streak alive, but that’s about it.
During a “full-off” week, studying German became my full-time job.
I’d wake up, revise, take a walk as a “break” while listening to podcasts, come back and cook lunch with anime dubbed in German in the background, eat while still watching, ride to the gym listening to podcasts, do flashcards between sets, ride home listening again, do grammar drills, take a “break” reading comics in German, shower while arguing with myself in German, do some light reading before bed… then sleep.
Since July, I’ve basically made learning German my life by moving to Germany.
I’m constantly forced to read, speak, listen, and often write in German, so coming here was the ultimate life hack.
What did a typical daily learning routine look like for you?
As mentioned before, during workdays, almost nothing; on off-days, everything.
Once in Germany things changed.
The thing about Germany is that one’s daily routine changes faster than the weather.
Normally, I might wake up and get ready to watch the Tagesschau, but instead I’d find an email from my Krankenversicherung warning that unless I submitted certain information promptly, I’d be residing illegally.
I’d spend the next few minutes (or days) dealing with that, before heading to work and picking it up again afterward.
And just when I thought I’d settled back into a normal German-learning routine, something else would come up — my Sperrkonto, WhatsApp, or PayPal — because moving to a new country triggers red flags that require identity verification, which requires other documents, which require… and so it goes.
Most of my routine, though, revolved around the “Feedback Loop from Hell: Wohnungsgesuch edition.”
To get a Wohnung (even a WG), you need a Schufa or credit score.
To get that, you need a German bank account. To get a bank account, you need an Anmeldung.
To get an Anmeldung, you need a Wohnungsgeberbestätigung.
To get that… you guessed it, you need a Wohnung.
Since July, my routine could pretty accurately be described as everyday life in the world of Kafka. But it’s getting better!
How much time did you spend on average per day learning?
About 6 hours a day of focused learning, maybe 10 hours if we include passive.
But since moving to Germany its pretty much 24/7 because even now I have nightmares about German bureaucracy.
What aspects of learning did you emphasize the most?
Following the program — except I didn’t really stick to the recommended time allowances.
For the A1 course, I basically finished it in two weeks, about a lesson a day.
A2 took a bit longer:
I’d spend the first day on the content, then do the fluency test and revision on the second day, so roughly a month.
B1 took even longer, spreading a lesson over four days.
For C1, I focused on exam technique and targeting my weaknesses.
The thing about speed-running German is that learning to pass an exam and actually mastering everyday German only overlap a little.
When I started preparing for C1, I jumped straight into Modelltests, reviewed my mistakes, and then tailored all my practice around them.
For example, if I got confused between verehren and beehren, I would spend a whole week just on prefixes like be- and ver-.
What was your biggest obstacle, and how did you overcome it?
Again, the Great Firewall of China. I didn’t so much overcome it as compensate for it.
Right now, I basically have the entire syllabus and every podcast lesson saved on my hard drive. If I had a question or was confused about something, I’d write it down and wait a couple of days until the internet worked again.
Other times, just pushing through to the next lesson somehow allowed my brain to figure it out.
I mean, if you force yourself to run, you’re naturally going to figure out how to walk. Sink or swim.
For C1, the listening section was my biggest obstacle. Most Modelltests don’t come with transcriptions, and typing out a five-minute conversation in German usually takes too long to be worth it.
Instead of target-practicing listening, I just listened to the podcasts over and over, practiced with everyday dialogue here in Germany, and supplemented with ARD podcasts.
Not the most efficient method in hindsight, but when time is tight, focusing on your strengths is usually the most effective approach for me.
What was the most important thing that helped you become more fluent in speaking?
Listening.
Pretty much everyone who’s ever asked me about my German has asked if I’ve ever lived in Germany — if not because of the way I speak, then at least my accent.
All I can say is that German dubs are actually really good. If you binge-watch a series and expose yourself to hours of passive listening every day, you naturally start speaking like the voices you hear.
And of course, I can’t discount the hundreds of hours of podcasts I immersed myself in from Manuel, Dan, Mauricio, Kristian, etc.
Once in Germany, speaking to kids.
Someone probably said it better than I can, but fluency isn’t just about grammar or vocabulary — it’s about how you fill the space between pauses.
Filler words and natural reflex responses, which aren’t usually taught in books but picked up on the street, were key for me — something I only realized after coming here.
A well-placed “Digga!” or “Man, das ist so bescheuert!” can go a surprisingly long way.
What helped you the most to overcome your fear of speaking to others?
It’s not about how you say it, but what you say.
If you’ve got a point, you’ve got a point — no matter your grammar, vocabulary, or accent. Coming from a philosophy background, I’m lucky to have a good grasp of rhetoric — and statistically, the best conversationalists are those who listen the most.
People love talking about themselves, and if you pay attention and remember the details, sliding in a single comment (often just repeating what they said) opens the conversation for you to speak more.
Honestly, I never really had a fear of speaking to others.
If you’re desperate enough, the fear disappears.
On the street, for example, if you have a bad case of diarrhea, you won’t care how you speak — you’ll get across your point by any means necessary: Toilette, Klo, Tandas… even sign language.
So just force yourself into uncomfortable situations — just maybe with less prune juice. ;)
What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who wants to learn German but struggles to find the time due to a busy life?
There’s no such thing as “not having the time.” It’s all about priorities. How much do you want it, and what future are you willing to invest in?
The program only takes about 25 minutes a day.
You can listen to a podcast while exercising, switch the language of your favorite show to German, or wake up a little earlier.
Small adjustments like these add up quickly.
Focus on your priorities.
Even with a busy life, it’s possible to fit in consistent practice — it’s about finding the moments that work for you and making them count.
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“From Zero To C1 in 25 Minutes a Day” is my All-Inclusive, complete, step-by-step, no fuss, hassle free 75 Lessons online program (yes, only 15 lessons for each Module A1/A2/B1/B2/C1) for Busy Professionals like you, so you can go from scratch to become fluent and confident to join meetings with your colleagues, negotiate with your clients and give presentations in front of your bosses IN GERMAN. Even if you have a busy working schedule.
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