How many people have heard about telenovelas or tv-series in general? Quite a few one might think. Indeed, for many years, telenovelas, especially those produced in Latin America, have been part of Western television. Some of the most popular categories of telenovelas are romantic comedies, pop band stories and teen drama. Even though the popularity of watching television has significantly declined over the past few years, telenovelas have managed to survive. Of course, there are people who prefer watching them online, without having to stick to the television programming. In the same vein as the Western telenovelas, Korean dramas or in short K-Dramas are well known in Asia. With the spread of South Korean popular culture, or otherwise the so-called ‘Korean Wave’, Korean dramas have gained more popularity among Westerners as well.
Korean Dramas, just like telenovelas, have a wide variety of different genres, such as romantic comedy, mystery, thriller etc. Their main difference from the telenovelas is the number of seasons and the duration of their episodes. While telenovelas usually have a lot of forty-five-minute episodes and more than one season, Korean Dramas are very popular for being considerably short. The number of episodes varies between fifteen and thirty episodes that last sixty minutes and they have only one season. With this duration it is difficult for these tv-series to become extremely boring for their audience, as the episodes are usually full of action with little to no redundant and tiresome scenes.
Another famous characteristic of the Korean Dramas is the topic of searching for their one and only ‘true love’. The characters are idealised and constantly searching for their ‘other half’. When they finally find it, they have to overcome numerous realistic or non-realistic obstacles in order to be with their loved one and to actually have a happy ending. Unlike western soap operas, explicit romantic scenes are very rare in K-Drama, mostly due to the generally stricter culture of South Korea. The K-Drama series rarely have scenes more explicit than holding hands or kissing, something that some Westerners regard as a boring characteristic. Most Korean Drama fans believe exactly the opposite. In their opinion, because of this attribute there is more room for classically romantic scenes, such as romantic walks under the moonlight and breathtaking love confessions.
Some other typical features of the Korean Drama series are the tone of the episodes and the distinction between realistic and non-realistic characters. It is very common for the first episodes to be quite funny and for the last ones to be dramatic. K-Drama series are often about either ordinary people’s lives, like doctors, soldiers etc., or extraordinary characters, such as mermaids, aliens and people with superpowers. Both of these character categories are famous among K-Drama fans, who cannot get enough of watching their favourite ‘oppas’ (Korean for big brother) and ‘onnies’ (Korean for big sisters) enacting various roles. Although at first Korean Drama series might seem extremely exotic to a Western audience, they are worth giving a try.
When asked to list famous video games, many people will find that World of Warcraft, or WoW for short, comes to mind. Most people who are into games will have had a WoW phase and currently either hate it or love it. Having inspired a movie, trading card games, comic books, and other video games, WoW has left its mark on the world of pop culture. But what has led to this massive success, and how is it still maintained today?
The initial developers of the game had a concept in mind which did not include anything along the lines of story. Online games of this scale that could be played with people around the world were only just starting to become a thing yet none of them had been very successful. They decided to apply it to an already set fantasy world and thus the creators of Dungeons & Dragons were approached, yet they could not come to an agreement on how to go ahead and it fell through. They then decided to approach Blizzard, known for their popular series of games called Warcraft. Finally, in 2004, WoW became the fourth instalment in the Warcraft universe and quickly blew up. It did not play like any of the previous games and had a completely revamped art style.
The beginning of the story takes place four years after Warcraft III which was one of the reasons it became so successful. Players came back to the planet of Azeroth (where Warcraft also takes place), not to watch a story unfold, but to be a part in it. An aspect that led to its huge success was that it was set in a pre-established world which meant that players did not have to get used to anything new. Adding on to this was also the fact that the players now controlled a character who was a part of the story. They were now the protagonist, playing as a character they designed and built and not a prescribed one. It also revolutionized the idea of quests for the players to follow. Instead of doing menial quests such as gather this and then you get a reward, they got to partake in quests that led to the endgame. Everything in WoW is connected to each other with the in-game characters having families and political feuds of their own which can be found spread out throughout the huge world of Azeroth.
Continued success, however, is attributed to the fact that the game keeps updating itself. It has now been fifteen years since WoW came out and it still has millions of players across the globe. By releasing new content every few months WoW keeps telling new stories for its players to enjoy. Furthermore, because players have built their characters, spent hours levelling them up, and gathering the best gear they could find it becomes hard to step away. Why would one try to find a new game when they have put so much work into this one? Adding on a tight community of players and a team of developers that listens to their players has caused WoW to still be successful to this day, and probably many more years to come.
The fascinating world of true crime videos on YouTube
The world of YouTube is a fascinating place. An endless supply of cat videos is just as easy to discover as a man playing Toto’s hit ‘Africa’ on an array of sweet potatoes and pumpkins. However, right now a new genre has started to emerge, a genre that has already attracted thousands of interested viewers: true crime. Sadly, the world is not as carefree and happy as the cat videos want to make us believe. Every day, people go missing or fall victim to heinous crimes and the only thing remaining are devastated relatives and friends. Therefore, it does not come as a surprise that the YouTube community got wind of these monstrosities which are happening all around us and thus built a new genre based on them. Nevertheless, whoever thinks of this as simply another way to create income and entertainment from other people’s misery, will be proven wrong.
First of all, it is imperative to note that introducing a true crime case on YouTube will undoubtedly contain an educational aspect. Talking about motives and triggering impulses that led a criminal to commit a crime gives an insight into the human mind that would otherwise stay concealed. Indeed, there are many psychological components which not only demonstrate the dark side of humanity but also showcase certain neurological anomalies. Hence, specifically viewers interested in psychology and the workings of the human brain will find an educational pastime in the videos produced by the true crime community.
Additionally, due to the exposure that an otherwise unknown crime case receives by being presented to an audience consisting mainly of young adults, the viewers gain an idea of some factors that are likely to lead to a situation of danger. A clearer understanding of the motivations of the offender helps to prevent possible future crimes under similar circumstances from happening. For instance, a young woman planning on walking home after a wild night out might consider taking a cab instead, after having watched the gruesome fate of another young woman in the same situation. Presenting such cases thus supports the education and safety measurements of predominantly young people. This notion is indeed important when it comes to taking daring risks or even handling seemingly ordinary situations.
Furthermore, by presenting crime cases to interested viewers on a platform as big as YouTube, chances are high that someone out there knows something that could possibly lead to the solving of an otherwise unsolved case. Raising awareness for a missing person might trigger someone’s memory and therefore contribute to this person being found safe and sound. Moreover, helping was never as easy as it is today: simply watching a video in one’s free time on the couch could possibly save someone’s life, if only the right people are watching.
To conclude, true crime videos on YouTube are not primarily a source of entertainment but offer educational insights to those who are interested, help prevent probable future crimes from being committed and also play an imperative role in the cracking of existing cases.
What makes the aliens we see in movies so alien like? Is it their green skin or their round spaceships? No, those are silly depictions that Hollywood has long since left behind. CGI offers limitless possibilities nowadays, but the best way to create something that the audience can immediately identify as unknown is to invent a new language. But how do you invent a language? Can anyone just go and create a language?
Constructed languages (or conlangs) serve several different purposes. Many linguists have attempted to create an ideal language that is easy to learn and speak, the most successful example of which is Esperanto, which is now spoken by around a million people, several thousand of whom are native speakers. However, constructed languages don’t always serve a purpose in the real world, they may just be designed for aesthetic pleasure. These particular constructed languages are referred to as artistic languages (or artlangs). The most famous example of an artlang is J.R.R. Tolkien’s Elvish, a group of languages he started creating in 1915 as part of the lore of Middle Earth. Now of course, Tolkien was not just an author, he was also an academic. His desire to create a language stemmed from his work as a philologist and his knowledge of Middle English.
There isn’t a clear set of rules for creating a good conlang. The main thing that language constructors pay attention to is the context in which the language is used. A language like Dothraki from Game of Thrones sounds foreign but still somewhat recognizable. The length of words and sentences are similar to the length of English words and sentences, and there are 23 consonant phonemes, where English is generally believed to have 24. All of the consonant phonemes in Dothraki can also be found in English. It makes sense for Dothraki to sound recognizable because it is spoken by humans, albeit exotic ones. A stranger sounding conlang is Na’vi, from James Cameron’s Avatar. Na’vi contains twenty consonant phonemes, but it lacks voiced stops (like b, d and g) and instead has several glottal egressives, which are sounds made by exhaling air from the throat instead of the lungs. Glottal egressives don’t occur in any Indo-European languages. This causes Na’vi to sound far stranger than Dothraki, which is logical to the viewer because Na’vi is spoken by blue creatures from another world. How strange a language sounds to our ears is influenced by the sounds in that language, the length of words and sentences and also the syntax of a language.
Creating a conlang is difficult because it is tempting to let your native language influence the language you’re creating. Most conlangs are created by English speakers and since they’re usually made for movies, television or books they’re geared towards an English audience. There might be people in this world to whom Na’vi would sound far more familiar than Dothraki does, but that is often not taken into account by the creators of conlangs. Overall, there are many pitfalls when it comes to inventing a new language, but when it works it is an incredibly effective way to immerse your audience in the world you’ve created.
If you enjoy a beverage that can be complex like a good beer or wine, you will likely enjoy whisky. There are many different whiskies coming from parts of the world such as the UK, America, and Japan, each with their own characteristics, charms, and legislation. There is an incredible diversity in taste and a lot of great whiskies are relatively affordable. You can choose for a relatively sweet whisky such as Jameson or Monkey Shoulder, or you can go for Laphroaig or Ardbeg which will completely overwhelm you the first time you take a sip. There is also the option to go for high-end bottles which, much like wine, can get very expensive. If you enjoy drinking alcoholic beverages, there is probably a whisky for you although some of them require an acquired taste. This article will focus on single malt Scotch whiskies, especially ones from the Islay and island regions.
But why drink whisky over something else? Whiskies can greatly enhance your night out, or night in. They can be enjoyed slowly and you usually do not end up drunk so you will not feel hungover the next day. The many varieties and stories about them make it easy to geek out over them, some distilleries like Highland Park have bottles named and designed after Viking legends.
I would like to start by discussing Islay whiskies. Islay is one of the southern islands of Scotland on which many famous whiskies are distilled. These include Caol Ila, Laphroaig, Lagavulin, and Ardbeg which are characterised by their smokiness. The smoky taste is created by exposing the malt used for the whisky to the smoke of a peat fire. This process can take up to a full day (or even longer in rare cases), but it all depends on the taste the distillery is going for. According to the distillery manager of Laphroaig, about fifteen percent of the taste of the whisky comes from the water used in the distilling process. These whiskies are usually not suited for beginners as the peat may ruin your experience if you are not introduced to it first through a less peaty whisky like Highland Park.
Highland Park is distilled on Orkney which is one of the northern islands of Scotland. It is praised for its great taste and is relatively affordable. The peat in this whisky comes from Orkney and makes for a different than the peat from Islay. The peat in Highland Park 12 is very noticeable but does not dominate which makes it good for people who want to discover smoky whiskies without getting overwhelmed. Others have recommended getting into non-peated whisky before trying something like Highland Park but it depends on personal preference.
There seems to be a consensus among the whisky community that Monkey Shoulder is a good whisky to start with if you like a relatively sweet taste. Usually it is a good idea to ask a clerk at a liquor store for help when buying a bottle because they can (if they are any good) give you a decent recommendation based on other drinks you have enjoyed.
