How Dutch-Online Uses Psychology to Teach and Learn Dutch

For many expats in the Netherlands, the journey to learn Dutch, whether in a classroom or through a Dutch language learning app, can be a cycle of hope and frustration. Some people take expensive, even intensive, courses, only to forget their language skills within a few weeks. When they sign up for Dutch language learning apps, they can’t apply what they have learnt in real-life conversations. For some, learning Dutch can seem forever elusive.

Kiran Bansi, founder of Dutch-Online, noticed that some people started out willingly, but traditional methods quickly demotivated them. Traditional methods were often inadequate to address the fast-paced, painful realities of expat life. What began as informal Dutch lessons with colleagues developed into Dutch-Online, an e-learning program quietly redefining how expats learn to speak, read, and write Dutch with a focus on the psychology of learning and on the developing skills that enable actual human connection at the core of the lessons.

Bansi shared the story behind Dutch-Online, what makes it work, and where he hopes to see his application someday, in an exclusive interview with Expat Republic.

From Coffee Break To Digital Classroom

Dutch-Online was never conceived at a business meeting; instead, it began in office break rooms. While he was working in IT, Bansi started teaching Dutch to co-workers between meetings. The ambience was worlds apart from the sterile, grammar-intensive classrooms his students became accustomed to.

Bansi recalls his students telling him that his style was quite different from that of other courses. Traditional language classrooms were often dull and very scientific. Instead, Bansi recalls, we’d just laugh, watch a video, and explain things very gently. At this point, classes started to expand, clients multiplied, and qualified teachers did as well.

But there was a recurring issue that led to failure in linguistics education. “We were seeing that people from the very same company were coming back each year for subsidized training and had to start from scratch all over again. They would have just about forgotten everything.” The cycle of learning and then forgetting is something lots of people experience:

Long-term retention could be taken for granted—an expensive and demoralizing experience for both learner and teacher.

With his own approach to IT and psychology, Bansi saw an opportunity to leverage something digital and inherently innovative. He started, not with a grand theory, but with a very simple one: experiment, listen, and adapt. “We started from scratch and just started experimenting. After every lesson, we started asking people, ‘Hey, does this work for you? Was it too hard? What would you like to see next?’ We’ve been doing that for the last six years, and that’s how we built our course. It’s built on what people want to see and what helps them click.”

The Brain Science Of Learning Dutch

Bansi has a BSc in both psychology and data management. And this is why human psychology was a primary building block for the Dutch-Online system from the start. His Dutch-language-learning app is a thoughtfully designed learning space that recognizes how our brains work and how we learn. Bansi explains the stress of the modern learner. “I had a presentation about stress and learning at an expat fair” he says, “There are some phases in stress, and you need to identify which phase you are in. If you are in either a chronic stress phase or the peak of your stress, then it does not make any sense to learn anything new because you are not going to remember anything.” He recounts the experiences of many clients who spent thousands of euros and countless hours on language courses, wondering why they failed. Bansi explains, “It will be better to focus your effort on getting to a lower point of stress before starting the language.”

The app uses multimodal learning and draws on aspects of the forgetting curve, meaning “every word in our system has a picture, the English and Dutch text, and a sound file,” he explains. This multimodal method allows knowledge to “land” multiple times in the brain. More importantly, his Dutch-language online learning is based on the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, a scientifically proven model of memory degradation.

When it comes to Dutch language online learning, he says, “If you repeat information at specific intervals—roughly after one day, three days, seven days, and 30 days—your retention skyrockets to around 80%,” says Bansi, pointing to a graph that shows a steep drop-off in memory without intervention. “Our courses are designed so you’re always repeating old material while learning the new. The biggest gain comes from reinforcing what you actually saw. If you’re not going to do this, you might as well not start from the beginning. You’ll only retain 20%.”

Bansi drills down into the self-efficacy theory, and his face lights up. This is one of the most interesting theories, and it’s fascinating. “Confidence is essential. If you believe you can do something, you automatically increase your effort, thereby making it a self-fulfilling prophecy”. That’s what happens, the confidence loop. “You got the opposite, the insecurity loop”. The cycle of insecurity begins with avoidance. Insecurity leads to avoidance. That could mean avoiding places where you need to speak, such as at the coffee machine at work. Avoidance brings no improvement, so it only further raises insecurity. And then you are struck.

What motivated me to build Dutch-Online? One real-life experience from my IT days: “I met an Indian guy, a manager of about 50. He had four kids and moved here. He told me he didn’t like going to the coffee machine because people were talking and laughing, and he didn’t understand why. He felt he didn’t belong.” …”The story made a deep imprint on me,” says Bansi. He explains how people’s insecurity makes it difficult for others to build confidence; hence, our goal is to build confidence through small, consistent gains so you feel empowered to shatter that cycle and start speaking. In other words, Dutch-Onlibe follows the “self-determination” theory of education.

• Autonomy: You decide when, how, and what to learn. You’re not forced into a rigid Tuesday night class after a long workday.
• Competence: You need to see progress. Even if you’re highly motivated, if you never see any advancement, you’re going to stop. Our system is designed to show you that you’re improving.
• Relatedness: The language needs to connect to something important to you- your social circle, your profession, your daily life. Otherwise, your brain tells you that this is not interesting. And you never remember it.

He then ties these theoretical viewpoints together. “These are all interrelated. If you have no autonomy but lots of competence, you’ll get frustrated. If you have no relatedness but a lot of purpose, you’ll feel lonely. If you’re very competent but have no one to share it with, it’s going to fade away.” This holistic view of the learner’s mental state is what makes the Dutch-Online approach feel so human-centric.

A Human Touch in a Digital World

Bansi contends, “Even now, Dutch conversation partner groups can be difficult to find.” When no one nearby speaks Dutch or the learner has no Dutch-speaking partner available, it is tough to find fellow learners to converse with in person. The theory underlying this is that a person learns a language, in fact any skill, when they relate to another person. So, if they relate to something or somebody, they are bound to learn. Or in other words, language classes where no relation exists are incomplete.

“Some intense courses charge €8000 for a one-week course. That’s ridiculous. We have people who come back from these courses, talking like, ‘Oh, I have done a very intensive course, but I can’t remember anything.” For Bansi, it is pretty straightforward: the value proposition of Dutch-Online. Smart Practice plan (€10/month) provides unlimited drills in vocabulary, verbs, and grammar, ideal as a supplement to other classes, with a free 7-day trial. The Full Access plan (€25/month) includes everything in Smart Practice plus structured courses, grammar explanations in English, listening, reading, and writing practice, live monthly webinars, and official CEFR-aligned certificates. For a one-time investment of €700, the Lifetime Access plan grants full access to all current and future courses, certificates, webinars, and features indefinitely, making it perfect for learners or employers investing in long-term language training. All subscriptions are flexible, mobile-friendly, and can be canceled at any time, offering transparent options for every learner’s goals.

The hybrid model effectively addresses a critical shortcoming of fully automated apps in Dutch-language online learning: while the system drills vocabulary effectively, it cannot offer the gentle encouragement, nuanced feedback, or communal experience that accompany a human teacher and fellow learners. This is a controversial choice: the belief that the community is worth the trouble for the operational hassle.

Dutch You Can Actually Use

Dutch-Online has designed a course filled with topics related to the expat experience, and competitors are content to teach vocabulary, often broken down into clichés. The subjects educators teach are among the most practical in the field, far from “textbook” Dutch. It was this focus on using customer feedback from the students’ group that worked day and night over six years to model a perfect course after early users.

“Most language classes move too quickly into food ordering, shopping, payment, and transportation,” Bansi quickly scrolls through his modules. “The module ‘likes and dislikes’ is loved by quite a few people. It’s really up to the mark, talking about modern stuff like Instagram, TikTok, and did I forget scrolling? Things you’d usually not discuss in normal class.”

The scenarios grow rather than recede into purely Dutch society in the process. “A2 things like how to complain about the weather, talk maintenance, banking, and money, how to talk to your bank… all the practical things you need for life in the Netherlands pretty much covered in A1 and A2.” To this end, learners can use the Dutch they have just picked up to participate in discussions in the gemeente, at a bank meeting, or with their neighbors. Improving integration into Dutch society, understanding, and a sense of belonging.

The AI Teacher Is A Companion, Not a Replacement

With recent technological advancements, Dutch-Online is now also using the AI Pronunciation Trainer. But Bansi moderates this with some wisdom: “No, it’s definitely not better than teachers. For sure,” he admits candidly.

He said, “It shows you a sentence to read. And then a speech AI tries to rate each word by comparing it with a reference. The next screen gives you back two audio files, the model audio and the recorded audio, with each word being color-coded (red if completely off and green if perfectly on, i.e., with the target output).”

Further development involves connecting a language model to that output and giving specific and constructive feedback, Bansi shares: “The vision is to have a friend with the same skill-set as a professional teacher living inside your phone, whom you can talk to at any time of the day or night for the Dutch-Online price. Imagine if we could accomplish that in the first place.” The aim is not to substitute the human teacher, but to provide a scalable practice partner to supplement the live session.

AI Companions and a National Mission

In short, Bansi imagines a future of Dutch-Online that is not only technologically advanced but also socially beneficial. The scenario-based learning constitutes the next significant step. “We’re building a feature from your own POV in a restaurant, and you get a person in the video to come up to you and ask you a question. You have to answer, and the character will respond accordingly. You’re literally talking to your app as if you’re in a real-life situation.” This, it seems, addresses the conversational side of the brain, which is frequently left untrained in a low-stress environment, separate from vocabulary training. “It’s a different part of your brain. If you’re great with vocabulary but never practice speaking, the stress of a real situation can block your memory. This directly trains that skill.”

Bansi is also in talks with the Dutch government. “We’re in deep conversations about using our platform for refugees and newcomers,” he reveals. Dutch-Online’s courses with instructions in Turkish, Arabic, and other languages will help differentiate it from competitors’ offerings.

“Every newcomer should have a guide in their pocket – someone to orientate them to the culture, help them learn the language on their phones,” he follows with a great level of excitement in his voice, “because when you’re used to something yourself and you see others who are doing things you’re not used to, that is always something weird, but then if you have a person on your phone telling you why and how people are like they are in this place, you open up and know. That will always help understanding and connection, affect society far more.” Bansi adds, It is not just business expansion, it’s a civic duty.

The Founder’s Motivation

For Bansi, this mission is deeply personal. He saw the high cost of linguistic and social isolation inflicted on his family, who were immigrants. “Quite simply, I think one thing that adds to the problem is my having grown up in a poor neighborhood. I saw the language barrier my parents had never allowed them to really connect with their environment wider than the family”.

This drive to break barriers and foster community is the real DNA of Dutch-Online. It is not about the conjugation of verbs; it is much more than learning to enjoy life in the Netherlands. Whether an expat manager trying to operate a coffee machine, a partner feeling isolated at home, or a professional eager to develop deeper roots, Dutch-Online offers lessons on how newcomers can connect with other students, building confidence in the language, one word at a time. It all combines with scientific human technology to create pathways for connection.