But you probably want to function a bit beyond thanking and apologising. What about asking who has taken something belonging to you, say your pen? (I know that’s pretty boring.)

Until recently you would have had to learn: Wie heeft mijn pen weggenomen? But not any more. Now the learner has a much better chance of reclaiming pens or any object at all by asking: Hey! Who took my badjas? A badjas is a bathrobe (“bath jacket”), but, thanks to the popularity of a TV ad, you can use this expression for any missing object.

The ad is for Belgacom TV and features Flemish actor Reinert D’haene, who apparently finds it the most natural thing in the world that he shares a house with Nicole Kidman and
Robert De Niro. He asks them where his bathrobe is so he can answer the door for a delivery of pastries. He does this in a mishmash of Dutch and English. De Niro is not helpful, which provokes D’haene to say, when he eventually finds his badjas: Hola, hola, subiet no koffiekoeken for you, hé! – Just you wait (I know, it’s a poor attempt at translating hola, hola), soon no pastries for you!

D’haene then opens the door to be handed the daily paper by paper boy Dustin Hoffman,
just as the pastries arrive in the car from Back to the Future. It’s brilliantly done and
promotes the company’s message that the stars of Hollywood will feel at home in your
house if you simply sign up with Belgacom.

One English speaker who is learning Dutch in the best way possible is Ray Cokes, a presenter from the early days of MTV. Ray has teamed up with Jean Blaute to make a TV series on Canvas about Belgian beer called Tournée Générale. Jean is a record producer who pops up in a variety of TV shows. In the first episode, Ray landed in Ostend and was whisked away by Jean in a VW camper van to visit the first brewery, De Struise Brouwers, The Sturdy Brewers (recently voted by Ratebeer the best brewer in the world). Soon Ray was building his Dutch vocabulary as he learned the names of the beers.

Flemish viewers must have gasped when the twosome moved down the road and were
admitted to the holy of holies in the brewing world, the Sint-Sixtus Abbey at Westvleteren, where they met the Cistercian monks who brew the world famous Trappist beer. Watch in the coming weeks (on Tuesday or Friday evenings) as Ray’s Dutch expands along with his knowledge of Belgian beer.

http://tourneegenerale.canvas.be