Buenos Aires, by Noelia Diaco. Photo is not visible, used only for sharing on social networks.

Spanish lesson #2: Buying electrical gear

September 1, 2011
My Spanish proficiency at the moment is limited to a Spanish 1 class - verbs only in present tense, not much vocabulary, and a few seconds to mentally translate each word. Becoming fluent enough to get by is a priority for the next few months. One way I'm trying to do that is make vocab lists for specific tasks.

Today I went out to buy some electrical gear, for example: power strips, extension cords, and adapters to plug in our dual 110/220V equipment (like our wifi router). Here's what I learned:

A plug is an enchufe. We are visiting for one year - nosotros visitamos por un año - so I need extensiones for la electricidad. My pocket dictionary didn't have the word for adapter, so I sufficed with la cosa con tres agujeros, the thing with three holes. I also wanted a voltage converter - convertidor de voltaje, for 220, doscientos y veinte to 110, ciento diez. And Steph wanted a non-radiation-emitting alarm clock, un despertador.

The shop had everything except the converter and the alarm clock, but overall the excursion was a success!

Tomorrow's list will probably be vocab for buying a cellular plan.

(Useful link: how to type accented characters.)

- Ben

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