Lodz, zloty - Pronunciation help

Quoting: Bev07

I haven't heard many exciting things said about Lodz, but that's okay. We're looking forward to the experience of getting acquainted with local people, learning about the culture, and the opportunity to visit various places in Poland

Quoting: ella

telefonitika..
what's so completely different about zloty? Exchange rate? But that's understandable.

Bev07Threads: 5 Posts: 13 Joined: Feb 19, 07	Apr 21, 07, 08:42 / #
1. Lodz - I'm moving there at the end of the summer and don't even know how to pronounce it! I thought it was pronounced as it looks, L-o-d-z, but then heard someone pronounce it like the word "wood" but with a 'ch' at the end...."Wooch." Is that correct? 2. zloty - Hopefully I've spelled that correctly? Is the "L" pronounced with a "w" sound? And if zloty is like dollars in the U.S., and pounds in the U.K.....then what is the Polish word for cents (US)/pence (UK)? 3. I think the letter "L" has a "W" sound. Are there other letters of the alphabet that have similar variations? 4. I know a little German (ein bischen Deutsch). Will that be at all useful to me in Poland? 5. Electronic translators....has anyone used one of these? I'm thinking of getting one for my year there. At my age I think I might need any extra help I could get since I want to be out and amongst the local people. Thank you!

telefonitika	Edited by: telefonitika Apr 21, 07, 09:19 / #
łódź is pronounced woodge h t t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodz take the spaces out this tells you about the area etc złoty no the currency in poland in nothing like the UK or US bev07 its completely different h t t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C5%82oty i would go to wikipedia and research more about the country and the currency prior to obviously moving there be a good idea otherwise you will get a bit confused and puzzled by things h t t p://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland i would suggest you learn polish to be honest if you intend on living there .. by my accounts german is hardly spoken .. english is amongst the younger generation but polish is the national language and it would be advised to learn it. i would invest in a good polish phrasebook like the lonely planets one that has pronouncation in and things be better than having an electronic thing in your hand

Bev07Threads: 5 Posts: 13 Joined: Feb 19, 07	Apr 22, 07, 23:00 / #
Telefonitika...thanks for the helpful website links. I'm enjoying reading them and I feel they will be helpful in preparing us for our stay there. I'll try to learn to speak some Polish. It looks quite difficult but I think local people appreciate it when one makes a effort to communicate in their language. Witek....we're moving to Lodz because that's where my husband's current project will be located for a year. I haven't heard many exciting things said about Lodz, but that's okay. We're looking forward to the experience of getting acquainted with local people, learning about the culture, and the opportunity to visit various places in Poland.

ellaThreads: - Posts: 56 Joined: Mar 10, 07	Apr 22, 07, 23:33 / #
Quoting: telefonitika złoty no the currency in poland in nothing like the UK or US bev07 its completely different telefonitika.. what's so completely different about zloty? Exchange rate? But that's understandable. 1 zloty (PLN) similar as in USA : 1 dollar ($USD) 1 zloty= 100 groszy like: 1 dollar =100 cents It's very clear: zloty and grosz / dollar and cent

telefonitika	Apr 23, 07, 06:54 / #
Quoting: Bev07 I haven't heard many exciting things said about Lodz, but that's okay. We're looking forward to the experience of getting acquainted with local people, learning about the culture, and the opportunity to visit various places in Poland i hope you enjoy the experience hunnie and you were welcome on the links plus best thing about wiki is you click on something and it will take you to more interesting finds and information related. i am already building up excitment for when i am in poland on holiday in summer this year Quoting: ella telefonitika.. what's so completely different about zloty? Exchange rate? But that's understandable. Thats why i gave the link to show the differences in styles you generally can get more to the british pound sterling for zloty than that of the us dollar.

brite	May 27, 09, 15:53 / #
witek: The town is full of old grey communist style apartment buildings and it is very ugly. Either you're not from Lodz or you don't know much about it. Every major city in Poland has large areas of ugly apartment buildings from communism era, Lodz is not an exception. But the centre of the city comes from the turn of XIX and XX century, with the beautiful Piotrkowska street being the axis of the city.

Cardno85Threads: 33 Posts: 857 Joined: Jul 11, 08 MEMBER	May 27, 09, 16:17 / #
Bev07: 2. zloty - Hopefully I've spelled that correctly? Is the "L" pronounced with a "w" sound? And if zloty is like dollars in the U.S., and pounds in the U.K.....then what is the Polish word for cents (US)/pence (UK)? It's a seperate letter Ł pronounced like a w as W in polish pronounced like a v. There is various different letters in Polish. Ą (aon), Ć (ch), Ę (en), Ł (w), Ń (nasally n), Ó (oo), Ś (sh), Ż and Ź (and someone else can fill you in on them cos i have no idea how to write them phonetically).

benszymanskiThreads: 9 Posts: 510 Joined: Feb 29, 08	May 27, 09, 16:43 / #
Bev07: I know a little German (ein bischen Deutsch). Will that be at all useful to me in Poland? In the west and south western areas of Poland some people speak German as a second language, in Łódź I have no idea if it will come in handy or not. Bev07: Electronic translators My experience is all of these electronic translators are totally crap. Better to get yourself a pocket dictionary and teach yourself basic grammer and vocab.

plk123Threads: 30 Posts: 6,410 Joined: Aug 29, 07	May 27, 09, 19:48 / #
Cardno85: Ż zh - as in Brezhnev

Cardno85Threads: 33 Posts: 857 Joined: Jul 11, 08 MEMBER	May 27, 09, 19:51 / #
plk123: zh - as in Brezhnev I suppose, although I have never heard of the word Brezhnev. I can use it but it's giving an english explanation that's a struggle.

EROON2	Aug 11, 09, 23:36 / #
Lodz: let me tell you that I was in business school grad class at the time and the class had been assigned a Harvard U. case study simply entitled "Lodz." Formally, a German Studies major at Columbia University, I had had a marvelous professor who is Jewish and we had been assigned "The Destruction of the European Jews" by Raul Hilberg. The book is a major and controversial work of art in that Mr. Hilberg treads carefully around all things Lodz. A master craftsperson. I believe that Mr. Hilberg left Austria and emigrated to the US and wrote his master treatise. Of course, google on. ...When I saw the lecture that my favorite professor had invited me to--after my own Mother was suddenly and inexplicably found dead--I was shocked. Lodz--a Harvard case study!!! I was furious! Incredulous! "These were people!" said I. "Not chattel!" 230,000 people shoved into a ghetto with the subsequent addition of another 25,000 up from what was then Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Estonia and Slovenia. After all was said and done, from what I have read, 877 people in the ghetto remained alive. The Harvard case study required the student to focus on whether or not it was a good idea to put a car company into the town of Lodz. I was shocked. And did not we here in the City of New York have the same conundrum with the World Trade Center site? A bunch of avaricious, back-stabbing architects eager to get their eyeteeth into the project regardless of those immolated on September 11, 2001? Impervious to other pp.'s feelings! My understanding is that plenty of car companies have found a home in Lodz. A town needs to go on after all. When Jews get upset they get upset at themselves b/c Modechai Chaim K. gave the keys to the city into the hands of none other than the Einsatzgruppen--a group of thugs that Germany didn't want. It is deemed that the keys to the city were given away by none other than a Jew who, with his family, went to his and their death anyway. When I think of Lodz, I get sick. One could argue that Lodz got it the worst in WWII--in terms of civilian population. I have never visited a Holocaust camp--and Lodz was not a camp in that order, but rather a ghetto--James Balwin: "A ghetto can be improved in one way only: out of existence",--but I think about it and it creeps me out. To live there? I have lived in Germany and love my German friends, but there is no mistaking it: it creeps me out. But go ahead, b/c life is for the living. Non illigitum carborundum.

JustanyaThreads: 2 Posts: 13 Joined: May 28, 09	Edited by: Justanya Aug 12, 09, 00:02 / #
SzwedwPolsce excellent link. thanks

MatowyThreads: 1 Posts: 519 Joined: Jul 4, 09	Aug 12, 09, 00:13 / #
You need to spell them properly. "Lodz" is completely incorrect, and sounds completely different to "Łódź". Ę - Intensely difficult to describe via text. If you say it as "en" you will be understood, though it's apparently less correct. The correct form is like saying "en", but without letting your tongue touch the top of your mouth on the "n" sound. Note: if you say it "en" (which most do), you pronounce it as a normal "e" if it's at the end of a word. Like so: Będę = "Bende". Ó - As in "U". "Dunno". Ą - English O, like "Dunno". Ł - English "W". Ż - Hard to say. Kind of like the "g" in "Beige", but MUCH lighter. Ź - Impossible to say via text. It is similar to "Ż", but Polish people find the difference huge, so you need to learn from a Polish person how to say it. Ń - Honestly, this letter is used so rarely that it doesn't even matter. It sounds the same as a normal "N" to me, so that's how I say it.

niejestemcapitaThreads: 3 Posts: 666 Joined: Jan 3, 09	Aug 12, 09, 00:22 / #
Matowy: Ń - Honestly, this letter is used so rarely that it doesn't even matter. It sounds the same as a normal "N" to me, so that's how I say it. i thought this accent changed the vowel sound in front of it ? Gdańsk, Państwo, Amerykańska?

SzwedwPolsceThreads: 12 Posts: 1,915 Joined: Feb 21, 09	May 27, 09, 20:02 / #
Link to a website where you can write words/sentences and hear how they should be pronounced. But it's very important that you spell them correctly and use the proper Polish letters. Or else it will sound completely wrong.

plk123Threads: 30 Posts: 6,410 Joined: Aug 29, 07	Edited by: plk123 May 27, 09, 20:29 / #
Cardno85: I suppose, although I have never heard of the word Brezhnev. I can use it but it's giving an english explanation that's a struggle. it's a name: his name maybe the most well known word with "Ż" sound to the non slavs.

PierogiThreads: - Posts: 64 Joined: Aug 1, 09	Aug 12, 09, 00:47 / #
Matowy: It sounds the same as a normal "N" to me, so that's how I say it. Then you are saying it wrong. We Poles know how to use it. Matowy: Honestly, this letter is used so rarely that it doesn't even matter If it didn't matter, it wouldn't exist. Shame we can't say that about most of your posts on here. niejestemcapita: i thought this accent changed the vowel sound in front of it ? Gdańsk, Państwo, Amerykańska? It affects the sound of the "accented" letter more, really, but whereas you know there is an important difference, Mr. P.C. Leftie doesn't think this "matters" :D