What's It Like to Meet Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft?

[WiFO215]

I'm going along with a few other selected school students who are going to meet the Nobel Prize winner Gerard't Hooft this afternoon. I'm so excited! Will tell you all how it went off when I return.

http://www.cmi.ac.in/activities/lecture-series/thooft-nov2009.php

 

[Jimmy]

That's great! Have a good time!

 

[Moonbear]

What a wonderful opportunity! Enjoy!

 

[Vanadium 50]

Just to save you from some potential embarassment: it's 't Hooft, not Hooft. the 't goes with his last name.

 

[Math Is Hard]

How do you pronounce that? Can one say it without spraying it? :)

 

[TeTeC]

Well, I guess the " 't " is the short form of "het" : http://forvo.com/word/het

 

[Monique]

How do you pronounce that? Can one say it without spraying it? :)

Never spray it..

The title now says: Going to be meeting Head today. As mentioned, 't should always be added.

If you really want to know to pronunciation, it is 'oo' as in roll (rohl), not as in hoover (huver)

't is an abbreviation for het, I'd probably pronounce 't as 'ut'

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I'm going along with a few other selected school students who are going to meet the Nobel Prize winner Gerard't Hooft this afternoon. I'm so excited! Will tell you all how it went off when I return.

I know. Gerard called me up very excited and said he was going to meet anirudh215.

 

[WiFO215]

I know. Gerard called me up very excited and said he was going to meet anirudh215.

Anyway. It wasn't all that fun. The scheduled program for today's meeting was a questionnaire with 't Hooft. (pronounced tooft) The other students were asking questions like "what do you think is the problem with electroweak theory" or "what are the fundamental problems with string theory". I don't like such questions because I know I am ignorant of a large part of physics and I dislike discussing "popular physics" pretending to understand whatever they say. I feel like I'm fooling myself. Even when he mentioned several times that such material was out of our scope as politely as he could, the barrage of idiotic questions continued. Unfortunately, the whole session was like this.

Oh well.

On the bright side, I got to meet some friends who are studying there and also got to see the college, hostel rooms etc. This was a good thing as I am considering attending this place next year.

 

[Monique]

It always nice to be able to meet the big shots. I once had a lunch meeting with a researcher who lived on a ranch in Texas and he was going on about how he liked living in the outdoor while all the grad students and postdocs were working night and days in the lab it gives you another perspective on their lives.

 

[WiFO215]

It always nice to be able to meet the big shots. I once had a lunch meeting with a researcher who lived on a ranch in Texas and he was going on about how he liked living in the outdoor while all the grad students and postdocs were working night and days in the lab it gives you another perspective on their lives.

Hehe. 't Hooft didn't talk very much about himself yesterday. After he walked in, a professor introduced him and the questionnaire began. This may be a little queer, but I thought his accent was cool.

 

[Moonbear]

Never spray it..

The title now says: Going to be meeting Head today. As mentioned, 't should always be added.

If you really want to know to pronunciation, it is 'oo' as in roll (rohl), not as in hoover (huver)

't is an abbreviation for het, I'd probably pronounce 't as 'ut'

Thanks for the Dutch lesson! Okay, now, as I try pronouncing it with the instructions above (I really DO try hard to pronounce people's names as they should be pronounced), are you supposed to pronouce the H also? Or does that drop out of the pronunciation? My tongue is having a hard time wrapping itself around pronouncing an H after a t. Maybe it just takes practice, or maybe that H gets pronounced slightly differently when there's a t in front of it, or maybe that H gets pronounced differently between Dutch and English (I'm willing to bet that's at least part of it).

 

[Monique]

I was thinking of comparable English words and "ho" (hooker) is the best, just stick the "ft" behind it for proper pronunciation. I'm not sure why it would be hard to pronounce a H after the t, I guess the problem may lie in how you pronounce the t (don't say tee!)

It is nice when people try to pronounce a foreign name right. It happened to me only once at a CVS store, which was a pleasant surprise.

 

[Andre]

The hot-potato-in-mouth pure UK English pronounciation of 'that' (T-hat) could be fine. and indeed the oo maybe as in 'go' - (let's gooooo)

 

[WiFO215]

Thanks for the Dutch lesson! Okay, now, as I try pronouncing it with the instructions above (I really DO try hard to pronounce people's names as they should be pronounced), are you supposed to pronouce the H also? Or does that drop out of the pronunciation? My tongue is having a hard time wrapping itself around pronouncing an H after a t. Maybe it just takes practice, or maybe that H gets pronounced slightly differently when there's a t in front of it, or maybe that H gets pronounced differently between Dutch and English (I'm willing to bet that's at least part of it).

I mentioned in my post. You don't pronounce the H. It's pronounced tooft.

 

[Andre]

No it is pronounced for sure. But maybe the good professor just wanted to avoid complications

 

[jtbell]

The hot-potato-in-mouth pure UK English pronounciation

This reminds me of the FAQ entry on the home page of Bjarne Stroustrup (a Dane, the creator of the C++ programming language) on how to pronounce his name. It says the best suggestion he's received for his last name is to "first say it a few times in Norwegian, then stuff a potato down your throat and try it again."

 

[Borek]

I don't like such questions because I know I am ignorant of a large part of physics and I dislike discussing "popular physics" pretending to understand whatever they say. I feel like I'm fooling myself.

Good for you. To know the line behind which you start to make an idiot out of yourself is the thing many people never manage to learn.

 

[WiFO215]

Good for you.

Thanks.