By Kate Hill
Staff Writer
When schools closed due to COVID-19, longtime Cazenovia resident Federico Meira began offering his grandchildren virtual Spanish lessons.
“I reached out to all of my grandchildren — we have 14 in total,” said Meira. “The majority are girls and the boys are very little. I taught two [granddaughters] from Plattsburgh, two from Cazenovia, two from Cicero, one from England, one from Mexico, and one from Orlando. Some of them were everyday and some of them just occasionally . . . The majority of group ranged from 8 years to 13 years, and there was one who is [in high school].”
Two of Meira’s granddaughters are starting Spanish in school next fall and were eager to get a head start.
Over daily Zoom meetings, Meira introduced his students to the basics, including common phrases like greetings and introductions, vowel sounds, the alphabet and the days of the week.
According to Meira, Zoom served as a great platform for his lessons.
“It is very easy,” he said. “We shared some songs and I would write down the lesson plan for the day. I could back and forth, and as I was explaining I could write on the white board. I would [start a sentence] and if I wanted them to put in the word, I would just put ‘dot, dot, dot’ and they could fill in the blank. It was very easy to teach, for me. I don’t know if I was doing it right, but I really took advantage of what the program has [to offer].”
Spanish is an important language to Meira, who was born in Argentina.
“[When I was born] my parents were speaking Spanish to me, but it actually wasn’t my first language because when I was one year old, my father — who was a diplomat from Argentina — was sent to England,” Meira said. “I started speaking in English because I had an English nanny over there.”
After spending several years in Europe, Meira returned to Argentina and enrolled in a Spanish speaking school.
“I learned Spanish and forgot my English,” he said. “I went back and forth from English to Spanish, but eventually English stayed in my brain and now it is my main language . . .”
Meira views the benefits of his Zoom lessons as twofold.
“I think that exposing my grandchildren to [Spanish] at an early age will make it easier for them to learn another language in the future,” he said. “My main motivation is for them to appreciate having another language. It’s going to help them when traveling and in their jobs and just in terms of cultural education. To know another language is always very positive. Also, for me, at 73, it’s sometimes tough to have your brain think in two languages, so it helps me practice my Spanish. Sometimes I struggle to find the word in Spanish and the word in English, but just briefly. My vocabulary is still good . . . Speaking both languages is good for me. I keep in contact with my siblings in South America — in Colombia and Ecuador — and we talk frequently, so that also gives me practice.”
According to Meira, his lessons are coming to an end as his grandchildren go on summer vacation.
“At the end, I’ll send them a Spanish-English dictionary for kids, so they can [reference it] when they have grandchildren of their own,” he said. “ . . . I want to let all the grandpas know that we all have some experiences that are great to share with our grandkids, especially now when you have some time available and you want to bring everybody together in your family. [Zoom] is a good tool to share and it’s a good time to do [something like] this and kind of forget about things.”
