Hi, I’m Gracy ✨

I grew up between the Netherlands and London and consider both Dutch and English to be my native languages. After being educated in Holland, I later moved back to London to complete my studies and train professionally as an actress at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Some people may recognise me from Tim Burton’s Wednesday, on Netflix Seasons 1 & 2, where I play Gabrielle Barclay.

My background in performance, storytelling, and communication has deeply shaped the way I teach. I love language not just as something technical, but as something alive, expressive, emotional, playful, and deeply human.

I’m naturally very visual, intuitive, and conversational in the way I work, and I love helping students build confidence quickly so they can start speaking Dutch in a way that feels natural and enjoyable rather than stiff or intimidating.

My lessons are warm, engaging, creative, and designed to help people feel relaxed enough to really learn.

"I started with Rosetta Stone and quickly realized it would not be enough to get me to a functional level of fluency. I needed a real teacher." ~ Onat (Student)

I’m bilingual in both Dutch and English and grew up between the Netherlands and London, so I understand both languages from the inside out, culturally as well as linguistically.

Having grown up between the Netherlands and London, I’ve spent decades immersed in both Dutch and English language, culture, and communication.

I was educated in Holland before moving back to London to continue my studies and later train professionally at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where communication, storytelling, voice, emotional connection, and confidence became a huge part of my professional life.

Over the years, I’ve worked with students across a wide range of levels and backgrounds, helping them develop conversational fluency, confidence, pronunciation, and a far more natural relationship with the language.

One of my strengths is helping English speakers understand Dutch in a way that feels far less alien or overwhelming. Because I’m fluent in both languages, I’m able to bridge meaning, humour, rhythm, sentence structure, and cultural nuances very naturally, which often helps students progress much faster and with far more confidence.

I’ve worked with students from many different backgrounds and levels of confidence, from complete beginners to more advanced speakers wanting to sound more fluent, natural, expressive, and conversational.

I’m known for creating lessons that feel relaxed, encouraging, engaging, and highly personalised while still getting real results.

"Gracy gives me individual attention and focuses on the areas I struggle with. This is something I could not have got from a group Dutch class - and I learn more in one hour a week with Gracy than I did in a 5 hour per week group course." ~ Becca (Student)

By now you may have already caught on, I don’t teach Dutch through robotic memorisation or endless repetition.

One of the biggest breakthroughs for many of my students is learning to understand the reasoning behind the language, not just the rules themselves. Once people understand how Dutch actually works, it becomes far easier to remember, process, and use naturally in conversation.

"Instead of just memorising some rules she teaches the reasoning behind them, this makes it much easier to process and interpret ... " ~ Gorkem (Student)

My teaching combines structure with intuition, conversation with pattern recognition, and traditional language learning with more visual, immersive, and psychologically engaging techniques.

A lot of students come to me after feeling frustrated with apps, group classes, or overly academic systems that left them understanding grammar on paper but still struggling to speak naturally in real life.

Together, we focus on helping Dutch become something lived rather than translated.

That includes:

• real conversational rhythm

• filler words and phrases used in everyday Dutch life

• pronunciation and flow

• understanding nuance and meaning

• confidence when speaking spontaneously

• and developing a more natural, less “textbook” sounding relationship with the language.

I tailor lessons closely to the individual student because everybody absorbs language differently.

For some people, the breakthrough comes visually.

For others, through conversation, storytelling, humour, structure, repetition, emotional connection, or real-life immersion.

The goal is not perfection.

The goal is fluency, confidence, comprehension, and genuine connection to the language.

"Now I can have a full hour long lesson entirely in Dutch and comprehend all of it. I also dream in Dutch now too." ~ Hans (Student)