Pronouncing Michio Kaku: Tips and Tricks from a Linguistics Expert

[murshid_islam]

well, this might sound like a stupid question. i just wanted to know how to pronounce the name Michio Kaku. is the 'ch' pronounced as the 'ch' in 'chair' or 'champaigne'? and how is 'kaku' pronounced? thanks in advance.

 

[cesiumfrog]

Did you check how he was introduced in the videos on his website (in turn referenced by wikipedia)? The videos seem a little interesting in their own rights..

 

[murshid_islam]

i can't load the videos. the internet speed is too low here. can you please tell me how it is pronounced?

 

[cesiumfrog]

something like mee-chee-o kah-koo (although I'm not sure about the surname, it doesn't mesh with my limited understanding of japanese)

 

[Rubens]

I thinks it is pronounced as what cesiumfrog posted but the surname is probably kah-kuh

 

[ranger]

I go to City College where he works :) I pronounce it, and so do many people as Dr. kah-kuh or Dr. Kaa-koo.

 

[murshid_islam]

I go to City College where he works

i am green with envy.

 

[SF]

He works? I thought all he does is write SF (Strange Fiction) :)

 

[ranger]

He works? I thought all he does is write SF (Strange Fiction) :)

Yup, he does. I believe he was teaching for like over 20 years now. He's currently working on Einstein's TOE. Well at least that's what the school's website says. I even got one of my books signed by him - "See you in the 10th dimension"

 

[Sojourner01]

He appears to be a very cool, if slightly precocious, chap. from what I've seen of him he's also a fascinating and insightful speaker.

 

[murshid_islam]

he has been teaching for about 25 years as far as i know. and i agree with Sojourner01. Kaku rally is a fascinating speaker. and he is a good ice-skater too.

I even got one of my books signed by him - "See you in the 10th dimension"

i am getting greener and greener with envy.

 

[quantum123]

His job is to appear on TV discovery channel and say things like : gravity warps spacetime around it ... and get his pay cheque.

 

[cesiumfrog]

Worse than that.. on at least one of those vid's, he supports string theory as a combination of Buddhism and Christianity, and explains to everyone in simple terms that as our universe dies, physics will let us escape to live elsewhere in the multiverse.. though I did find the "dark matter is parrallel universes" idea interesting..

 

[SF]

I've never heard his "dark matter is parrallel universes" idea but it occurred to me several days ago while taking a shower that there _could_ be galaxies just like ours floating around in the universe made of their own kind of matter that wouldn't interact with ours except through gravity.

Is this similar?

Of course, that's just supposition - I don't see any way to falsify that or any reason to consider it such in the first place.

Going on this line of suppositions: could we have several "Earth's" stacked together?

 

[cesiumfrog]

I really know very little about this, but I've heard claims before (perhaps in the "elegant universe" string theory docu'?) that the weakness of gravity is attributable to it spreading and permeating even parallel dimensions/universes. Hence, I guess the idea is that if two colliding galaxies *miss* in other universes, then the dark matter distributions appear to keep moving (separating from the matter we see in our universe) to give the lensing observations recently touted as "dark matter proof". No idea whether anyone's close to even writing down the mathematical details, let alone trying to test this.

 

[jesterchase11]

well, this might sound like a stupid question. i just wanted to know how to pronounce the name Michio Kaku. is the 'ch' pronounced as the 'ch' in 'chair' or 'champaigne'? and how is 'kaku' pronounced? thanks in advance.

I found a guy interviewing him and said it this way:

Mish(like 'Mitch' but with 'sh')-ee-oo, Cock-oo

 

[rewebster]

I think of Machu Picchu when I see his name

 

[Noxide]

me she oh cah cooh

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I am fairly certain that there is no hard "ch" sound in Japanese though I think most people pronounce his name with the hard "ch".

 

[DaveC426913]

I don't know why, but the first time I saw this thread I dismissed it because I thought the title was:

How to denounce Michio Kaku?

 

[Proton Soup]

catch his latest show on how to build light sabers and time machines and you can hear him pronounce it.

 

[murshid_islam]

I don't know why, but the first time I saw this thread I dismissed it because I thought the title was:

How to denounce Michio Kaku?

.
Why on Earth would anyone want to "denounce" Michio Kaku of all people?

 

[DaveC426913]

.
Why on Earth would anyone want to "denounce" Michio Kaku of all people?

Now you know why I dismissed it first time around...

 

[jtbell]

I never cease to be amused by the threads that get revived after long dormancy, presumably by way of Google searches.

(Do a Google search for "how to pronounce Michio Kaku")

 

[OmCheeto]

I'm pretty sure they used to just call him Mike in his younger days.

I think of Machu Picchu when I see his name

I would tell you what you just about said in Serbian, but I'd be kick banned for several weeks.

 

[murshid_islam]

I never cease to be amused by the threads that get revived after long dormancy, presumably by way of Google searches.

(Do a Google search for "how to pronounce Michio Kaku")

.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the revival of this thread, which I had started 2 years ago.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

ka ku mi chi o