Don't English Me

The title of the documentary which I will be discussing is “Don’t English Me”, a documentary from i-Witness from GMA-7 hosted by Howie Severino. The show I-Witness is a documentary show which is always being aired in GMA-7. The intended audience was none other than the Filipino people, regardless of what their social status was. The documentary aimed to make people of different social statuses aware of what was happening around them. It tried to make them further understand the different hardships that different people from different social statuses are facing not only due to financial constraints, but also due to educational attainments.         

            The purpose of the documentary is to make people aware that not everyone receives the same level of education as everyone. As a result, people have a hard time defining and differentiating the numerous types of words that are present. Majority of the people would just rely on how the word is heard rather than how it is written, or spelled. Furthermore, people do not care about what education they receive for they believe that education is just the same. What the director wants to convey to the audience is simple, education is important. Being well educated means being able to comprehend and understand the different things which are present in our society. Additionally, being well-educated means that we are capable of further improving our country’s literacy rate. In turn, we would be able to improve our communication skills which would raise our level of efficiency.

            Prior to watching the documentary, I was aware about the different problems that our society was facing. This is evident along Taft Avenue, and in front of De La Salle University. I am under the impression that the people around these areas, the ones who are utilizing the “padyaks” are the people who are unfortunate enough not to get the level of education that they desired, the level of education they needed. I expected to see worse. From what I know, there are people who have infinitesimal comprehension with regards to the English language. I don’t believe they wanted to, but rather I think they were deprived of that right. From what I know, people who reach a certain age will start to become lazy to learn new things. This would be a factor that would hinder their understanding on things that would greatly augment their skills in understanding the desired language. I wanted to ask, why isn’t the government giving much attention to this issue? If they really believe that manpower is their greatest asset, then why doesn’t the government invest heavily on things that would heavily improve the quality of education that each person will receive? Does the government really intend to do so?

            The documentary is about the people who aren’t that proficient in the English language. They’re the type of people that we criticize because they’re usually wrong with what they say, and how they spell it. When the level of education of the teachers were questioned, it became a point of interest because it was the point in the documentary wherein you could find out whether or not the teacher was capable of handling her students as well as herself. The various locations wherein the documentary was filmed also played in defining and shaping the information gained from the documentary.

            With regards to the finished product, the sound effects were well placed. The documentary was really well edited, and the render quality was nice. The angling and the timestamp editing was used efficiently. The interviews were thorough and really gave an in-depth with regards to the subject. The special effects like slo-mo, and fast motion which were used in the documentary were a big help in showing the events of the documentary.

            In general, I liked the documentary. I did not like a specific part because each part was able to show something unique, something different which the other parts did not have. I’ve learned that not everyone is lucky enough to have the same level of education that I have right now. Furthermore, what caught my attention is that though there are different people and different ways of learning, not everyone is blessed to be able to understand and learn things fast. The only drawback of the documentary is that it was too short, and that there could be more things which could be added to it. I would recommend this documentary to sociologists as it would allow them to immerse themselves further into the depths of society. 

Reference :

jdmuzhikero (2013, July 9). "Don't English Me" [Youtube] Retrieved from : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xUThy6JMY0