Q&A with Willem, about languages and habits

In this special Substack feature, we sat down with Willem van den Eijkel, co-founder of Ellie, a language learning start-up that creates personalized language learning exercises for its users.

1. Which language are you most passionate about speaking, and what first drew you to it?

Willem: It’s a hard question, but I think the language I’m most passionate about at the moment is Portuguese. I started learning it approximately five years ago, and Brazilian Portuguese is what I enjoy speaking the most lately. In addition, I’m also learning Italian—I only started two weeks ago, and it’s been a really enjoyable process so far. I’m very excited to make steps there.

2. Which languages do you currently speak, and at what level do you feel most comfortable in each?

Willem: That’s a question I get very often. I speak five languages very well, plus a couple of “bonus” ones—here’s the rundown:

• Dutch (native/C2): My mother tongue—everything from my earliest memories to day-to-day thinking happens in Dutch.

• English (C2): Taught from primary school onward; both my bachelor’s and master’s programs were entirely in English, giving me rock-solid academic fluency.
• French (C1): Started at 12 in secondary school, boosted by extra lessons and two international summer courses, then reinforced during my European Studies degree.
• Spanish (C1): Began in my second year of university and became obsessed—reading novels, tuning into radio, chatting with native speakers. A year in Madrid (six months internship, six months at university) cemented my confidence, and I’ve spent the last two years living there again.
• Portuguese (C1): Kicked off with a course in Madrid about five years ago, followed by six months in Lisbon and two immersion trips to Brazil with formal lessons.
• Italian (A1–A2): I only started two to three weeks ago but have already logged 15 hours of lessons. My strong foundation in other Romance languages means I’m progressing quickly and comfortably hovering between A1 and A2.
• Swedish & German (passive comprehension): I haven’t formally studied these, but thanks to their similarity with Dutch, I can follow conversations and media in both without much trouble.

On the CEFR scale, I’d place Dutch and English at full C2/native, French, Spanish, and Portuguese at C1, Italian around A1–A2, and Swedish and German as strong passive (roughly B1 comprehension) “bonus” skills.

3. Can you share a memorable moment or breakthrough from your own language-learning adventures?

Willem: There are a lot of memorable moments for me, but I think the most incredible one is when you reach the point in any language where you can start making jokes - especially word jokes or puns. That really shows you’ve reached a level where you can understand things very quickly and react with humor.

4. What’s your go-to routine or ritual when you carve out time to study a new language?

Willem: Right now, my most relevant routine is for Italian. I use Ellie to do routine checks on the app and learn Italian that way. I also listen to podcasts and read children’s books in Italian, books at a level I can understand, to reinforce what I’m learning. In addition, I'm also using a lot of workbooks, as you can see in the screenshot below. This also prompted me to start making these workbooks at Ellie, so stay tuned for some nice workbooks for the languages we offer.

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5. Do you have a favorite word or phrase in any language that always makes you smile or sparks your curiosity?

Willem: I don’t have one specific word, but I love how each language has words that can’t be fully translated. In Dutch, my mother tongue, we have “gezellig,” which kind of translates to “cozy” but not fully. In Portuguese, there’s “saudade.” These untranslatable words fascinate me because they reveal emotions or feelings that don’t even exist in your own language. When you learn another language, you start to understand new shades of feeling.

6. Looking back on your experiences, what one piece of personal advice would you give someone just starting their language-learning journey?

Willem: Commit to a language. It’s important to explore a lot of different languages at first. One should get touch points with many kinds and then find the one that truly excites you. Once you’ve chosen, expose yourself to it as much as possible. Right now, I’m intentionally immersing myself in Italian, and that’s been a great way to learn more.