Think Metric (Almost)

If you are from the United States and need to deal with just about any other part of the world you will need to think metric. That is, most of the world uses the metric system of weights and measures. You can agonize over this or you can convert yourself. That is, don't convert between systems--just convert yourself.

That said, Nicaragua is an interesting combination of systems. For example, construction timber has dimension in inches (e.g., 2 x 4) but a length in Varas. Also, things sold by weight are generally in pounds.

The real secret to converting yourself to anything is to start thinking in that system. This is true of learning languages and equally true of metric weights and measures. As long as you continue to convert between systems will be frustrated by the new system. So, let's forget that other system exists and learn about the metric system in a way that makes sense.

Temperatures

I picked temperatures first because it is such an easy and clear example of this method of learning. After all, you have no attachment to the numbers you have been using--you actually just convert those numbers into what clothing you will need.

Here is a basic chart to get you thinking in Celsius.

That's about it. In the Your comment field you might want to fill in the type of clothing you would wear or, for example for the 40C line, the fact that you need an air conditioner. This will help you remember the table.

If you live in an extreme climate you might want to add entries that are keyed to some condition in your life like it is so cold the car won't start.

Distance

Most short distances have some physical characteristic we can work with. For example, a meter is about equal to your stride or half the height of a basketball player. Find some things you are around regularly and get used to thinking of their size in meters. For example, my stove is about one meter wide, the lot my house is on is about 12 meters wide and I live 40 meters from the main road.

Shorter distances are generally expressed in centimeters (1/100 of a meter) or millimeters (1/1000 of a meter). These high ratios (100 to 1 or 1000 to 1) are hard to visualize so, once again, we need some standard things to think about. Here are some examples with space to add your own:

When we get into longer distances we are generally thinking in terms of time to travel that distance. (Most people don't know how many feet there is in a mile but they have a good idea how long it takes to walk or drive a mile.) Working with the assumption, let's assign some values to this sort of travel.

The kilometer is the metric unit used to express these longer
distances. A kilometer is 1000 meters but, again, thinking in a 1000 to 1 ratio is hard. Instead, let's just think in terms of time.

With regard to driving, I have found that most driving seems to be slower in Latin America than in the U.S. A kilometer is actually about 60% of a mile and I have found if I just think like I would in the U.S. as far as time per unit I get the right answers.

Area

Usually, area is expressed in square something where the something is just some linear measure. The exception in the U.S. system is an acre which is actually a unit of square measure. Thus, 100 square inches is the area of something whose length times width equals 100. It could be 10 x 10 inches, 5 x 20 inches or even 1 x 100 inches.

There are no surprises in the metric measure here. The most common term is square meters. If you aren't comfortable forgetting everything you know about that old measure system yet, a square meter is about 10 square feet. Ok, I'll admit it--I actually do like this 10:1 ratio because I know, for example, how big a 2000 sq. ft. house feels. Well, that's just a 200 m2 house. Easy.

If you start working with larger areas such as land measures there is a convenient term available which is the hectare. A hectare is 10,000 square meters.

Weight

The unit of weight is the gram. That's a really small unit so the weight of most "things" is described in kilograms or thousands of grams. A kilogram equals 2.2 pounds. The trick, as with the other measures, is to find something that is easily identified in this new measurement system. An easy one for me was coffee. That can of coffee--that is the contents plus the can--weights about half a kilogram (500 grams). My dog weighs 30kg, my maid's granddaughter 46kg and so on.

That said, some weights in Nicaragua are expressed in kilograms but most are in pounds. I expect this is because there were a lot of scales in use and, well, there still are. Thus, you buy 5 pounds of beans but your truck has a capacity of 500 kilograms.

Volume

The basic unit of volume is a liter. A bottle of pop is a good starting point and, in many cases, it will have its volume listed in liters. One of the individual-sized bottles is likely to be either .5 or .6 liters (500ml or 600ml). Those big bottles are usually 2 liters. Next time you go buy gas you might get to see how many liters you can put into your tank. This is because some gas stations use liters, others use gallons.

Other Strange Units

While the main purpose of this article was to help you think metric, there are cases in Nicaragua and other countries in the region where metric doesn't deal with everything. Lumber measurement is one of these areas and it is stranger than you might expect.

Dimensional lumber tends to be identified the same as in the U.S. A two by four is still called a 2 x 4. Of course, it was a very long time ago that a 2 x 4 was actually two inches by four inches so we can just think of this as a phrase describing this item. But, we now have the catch--the length of said 2 x 4.

You would hope the length was expressed in meters but no such luck. You would settle for it being in inches or feet but, again, no such luck. It is expressed in varas. A vara is about 15% less than a meter. Usually. The vara seems to be of Spanish origin and seems to lack an official definition in most jurisdictions. One exception is the state of Texas where it is officially 33 1/3 inches. It appears to have been legislated to other values in different areas but this is pretty close. Thus, a typical "eight foot stud" would be a little less than three varas in length.

Unfortunately, varas are also sometimes used for land measurement. Thus, there is a hectare-like term. That is, a manzana is 10,000 square varas.

Real estate records are in meters but most paperwork was originally done is varas. This tends to be preserved where you will see titles which show both units. For conversion, a manzana is about 7400 square meters or about 3/4 of a hectare.