Description:

"Kaya Mo Yan!" is a binge-worthy animated video series designed for young Filipino immigrants in New Zealand. It serves as a practical guide to help them navigate the challenges of family reunions and social interactions.

Although learning a language may be difficult to start with, there are always gestures that are simple to catch on, especially to young audiences, and that is already a good start to this project. Kaya Mo Yan! is a binge-able series of multiple animated motion video content that serves as a guide to younger Filipino audiences who are immigrants in New Zealand and need a guide to survive the toughest event they can think of which is a family reunion that requires social interactions. “Kaya mo yan” in Tagalog means “You got this!”, it is an uplifting term used to get one's spirit to have the courage to do something they are nervous about. The term is used as an encouragement to push someone to step out of their comfort zone and not to be discouraged to do it. The series involves the use of non-verbal language as an important role in social gatherings. The thought of creating this project was to bridge the gap of Filipino immigrant children to be able to interact with their families not to surprise them by speaking the language but interacting through actions.

The project (so far) consists of three short episodes talking about 3 non-verbal gestures that can be helpful to use at social gatherings and how to use them which is: -
• ‘Makikiraan po’ which is a way to say, “excuse me.”.
• ‘Kain tayo’ hand gesture is an invitation to ask someone to eat together with.
• ‘Tara? Tara! (Quick nod)’ which is a signal that uses eye contact to invite someone to leave or go somewhere else in a positive, subtle way.

These three episodes serve as a guide to be able to help the target audience associate themselves easily in family reunions. The takeaway from this series is to give the viewers a chance to get comfortable in learning and familiarizing themselves with non-verbal cues even if speaking the language isn’t their forte. The message that this project can teach is that learning the Tagalog language can be easily learned for some people but the value of understanding non-verbal cues and gestures is already a big step and also plays a big role in relearning one’s culture.

The design was to have a representation of Filipino roots to make a distinct style such as the use of Festive colors which explains the vibrancy of the videos, and the uplifting energetic voice-over of a child becoming a tour guide to a social gathering. The character designs are also inspired using the Philippines’ national costume called Baro’t Saya and Barong Tagalog which are used in ceremonies. The project made use of non-verbal gestures because it also plays a big role as it values respect and the thought of being polite.