Loek van Kooten, MA

@[email protected]
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MA Japanology. 1st Prize at national Japanese Speech Contest. Judo black belt.

Japanese / Chinese / English - Dutch game translator.

Married to Japanese wife, father of two wonderful sons. Foster parent of equally wonderful 16-year old Chinese poor rural girl, whom I (video)chat with multiple times per week.

Game translator for 27+ years: www.loekalization.com

Developer of Cattitude, the newest CAT tool in town: www.c4ttitude.com

Owner of Japanese language school: www.japanology.nl

translationwww.loekalization.com
developmentwww.c4ttitude.com
language schoolwww.japanology.nl
game developmentwww.dragonception.com
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA12h ago
Full article with audio, furigana, and quiz: learn.japanology.nl/article/wa-ga What tripped you up the most with は and が? Drop your answer below. #Japanese #LearnJapanese #JLPT #Grammar #Japanology #は #が #WaVsGa #GameLocalization
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA12h ago
We wrote the full guide with nine rules, real example sentences from published game translations (Shadow Tactics, Punch Club 2, Battlefield, Company of Heroes 3), and an interactive quiz at the end. Our honest advice: learn them one at a time. Stack the next rule only when the previous one has simmered. Accept that you'll get this wrong for a year or two. That is fine. Grammar is a means, not a goal. Even native speakers disagree on the right choice sometimes.
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA12h ago
- は emphasizes the verb. が emphasizes the subject. - が introduces new info ("a man"), は marks known info ("the man") - but only with verbs. With adjectives, は introduces properties instead. - WH-words (誰, 何, どれ) always take が. Zero exceptions. - は cannot appear inside subordinate clauses. Only が. - Stative verbs (好き, 分かる, 欲しい, 必要) flip the English subject/object structure: the "object" takes が.
Loek van Kooten, MA12h ago
I am an eel. 私がうなぎです。
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA12h ago
That sentence does not mean what you think it means. Change one particle and it becomes: 私はうなぎです - "I'll have the eel. " Which is probably what you meant in the first place. は and が. Two particles. The single hardest grammar point in all of Japanese. Not because any one rule is complicated, but because there are nine of them, and they all apply at the same time. Here is what most textbooks tell you: - は = topic marker - が = subject marker Here is what they don't tell you:
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA1d ago
Get it wrong, and the character sounds off before the player even notices why. We wrote a deep dive with 25 real game dialogue examples (from Graveyard Keeper, Dustborn, Punch Club 2, and more), interactive quiz, and audio on every sentence. Free to read. No signup. https://learn.japanology.nl/article/kara-node #Japanese #GameLocalization #JapaneseGrammar #LearnJapanese #Localization #JLPT #JapaneseLanguage
から vs ので: The Two Faces of "Because" in Japanese

Both から and ので mean "because," but choosing the wrong one can make you sound rude or robotic. Learn when to use each form, plus だから and んだから, with real game dialogue examples.

Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA1d ago
They're not. Only one won't make your boss think you're rude. から says: "This is MY reason. " ので says: "This is THE reason, and you can see it too. " That one shift in perspective changes how polite you sound, how pushy you come across, and whether a native speaker hears a natural sentence or an awkward one. In game localization, this distinction defines character voice. A grizzled soldier barks reasons with から. A polite NPC explains with ので.
Loek van Kooten, MA1d ago
Japanese has two words for "because": から and ので. Every textbook teaches them. Most learners treat them as interchangeable.
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA2d ago
We start with the easy stuff on learn.japanology.nl, with 32,500+ words to master. #Japanese #LearnJapanese #JLPT #Grammar #Japanology #JapaneseGrammar #ItSeems #日本語文法
Show threadLoek van Kooten, MA2d ago
This is one of the grammar points that trips up even intermediate learners. Most textbooks explain them one at a time, but the real challenge is knowing which one to pick when they all translate to "it seems. " We wrote a complete guide with comparison tables and real examples from published game translations: https://learn.japanology.nl/article/sou-rashii-you-mitai-ppoi When did "it seems" last trip you up in Japanese?
そう, らしい, よう, みたい, っぽい: Five Ways to Say It Seems in Japanese

Japanese has five ways to say it seems. Each one means something different. This guide takes you from zero to full command, with real examples from published game translations.