英國女生爲學韓語給舌頭動手術

Rhiannon Brooksbank-Jones, Nottingham girl who dreams of living and working in South Korea once she finishes university, has her tongue lengthened to help her pronounce Korean words better。

While taking language lessons，the 19-year-old teenager found that she couldn't pronounce certain crucial sounds in the Korean alphabet。

"I'd been learning Korean for about two years, and my speaking level is now high, but I was really struggling with particular sounds,” said Rhiannon。

Her dentist suggested it may be because she was born with a slightly shorter than average tongue, caused by having an unusually thick lingual frenulum - a condition known as Ankyloglossia, or commonly as "Tongue Tie"。

After discussing the matter with her parents and language tutor, Rhiannon decided to undergo an operation to correct the condition, despite the fact it has never caused her any problems in speaking English。

The lingual frenectomy carried out at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre lengthened Rhiannon’s tongue by about 1cm and she can say words that were impossible before。

"For me it was an important thing, because I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and if I can't do it perfectly, it really irritates me."

"Some might say it's extreme, but you could apply the same argument to plastic surgery. That makes people feel more confident looks-wise, and this made me feel more confident language-wise. For me, it was like having a tooth pulled，" Rhiannon added。

Rhiannon became interested in the Asian nation's culture through a friend at school. The teenager was into Korean pop and television programmes。

She said:"Most of my free time was soon taken up with Korean things. Now I visit a Korean Church in Nottingham, where I do bible readings in Korean, and can't wait to visit the country itself."

Rhiannon is currently awaiting her A-level results, and hoping to study Korean Studies and Business Management at the University of Sheffield。據英國《每日郵報》8月11日報道，英國諾丁漢女孩裏安農•布魯克斯班克-瓊斯夢想着大學一畢業就去韓國工作生活，爲使自己的韓語發音更標準，她給自己的舌頭做了增長術。

在學習韓語的過程中，這位19歲少女發現有幾個關鍵的音自己發不出來的。

“我學習韓語有兩年了，雖然目前我的口語水平較高，但是卻難以應對個別發音，”裏安農說。

她的牙醫推測，問題可能出在她的舌繫帶明顯較厚，從而導致舌頭生來就比普通人的短，這種情況被稱爲“舌繫帶短縮”或者更通俗地稱爲“結舌”。

在與父母進和語言導師商討後，裏安農決定接受手術改善現狀，雖然她的結舌對說英語沒有任何影響。

裏安農在諾丁漢女王醫療中心接受了舌繫帶切除術，這使她的舌頭比原來長出1釐米，以前發不了的單詞現在都能行了。

“這對我來說非常重要，因爲我是個完美主義者，不把事情做得完美我就會煩躁。”

“也許有人會說這樣的行爲太極端了，但這和做整形手術是一個道理。整形手術讓人們對自己的相貌更自信，而這個手術讓我對自己的表達能力更自信。這對我來說就像拔顆牙那麼簡單”， 裏安農補充道。

裏安農是通過在學校的同學開始對韓國文化感興趣，她對韓國流行音樂和電視劇非常着迷。

她說：“我大部分的空閒時間都用來接觸一些關於韓國的東西。現在，我會參觀在諾丁漢的韓國教堂，在那裏，我用韓語讀聖經，我已經迫不及待地想去看看真正的韓國了。”

目前，裏安農正在等待高考成績，她希望能夠在謝菲爾德大學學習韓國研究和工商管理。