“English is a vital language nowadays, and I thought of guiding people in our society to a new, entertaining way to improve their English,” said Loay Al-Shareef, host of Fallimha. He also works as a software developer for a multinational company in Jeddah.

“When I was 13 or 14 years old, I wanted to enhance my English. Many parents send their kids to summer schools and camps to acquire language skills, but I didn’t have the luxury to travel abroad. So I had to think out of the box and I found the most appropriate method while watching movies. These entertain me, but what if I could also reap some benefit out of them? Wouldn’t that be great? So that is what I did.”

Al-Shareef believed in the idea so much, that he immediately discussed it with his cousin Mohammed Mohanna and Tariq Nadir of Filim Pictures, and joined forces with Amr Dulaimi of Equoe Viral Communications. They formed a team that believes in edutainment, education with an entertaining twist.

“We were all convinced it’s good to present something that adds value to society. People loved the idea and it made them broaden their horizons toward new methods of improving their English,” said Al-Shareef. Fallimha combines watching a movie with certain techniques to help viewers improve their English. Sketches are used to discuss how to implement what viewers have learned.

“We are mainly targeting the Saudi audience, but of course we welcome an international audience as well. This is why we insisted on having English subtitles in the introductory and first episode, and we will keep on doing it.”

The first episode got highly positive feedback. “Enormous, it really exceeded our expectations,” said Al-Shareef.

“I was a bit worried about it, because on YouTube, people sometimes comment harshly on the videos. But if they say they like it, they really do.”

Al-Shareef urges those who support his idea to like it at Facebook.com/fallimha and follow them on Twitter via @Fallimha to get the latest updates on the show.