英国女生为学韩语给舌头动手术

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。

据英国《每日邮报》8月11日报道，英国诺丁汉女孩里安农•布鲁克斯班克-琼斯梦想着大学一毕业就去韩国工作生活，为使自己的韩语发音更标准，她给自己的舌头做了增长术。

在学习韩语的过程中，这位19岁少女发现有几个关键的音自己发不出来的。

“我学习韩语有两年了，虽然目前我的口语水平较高，但是却难以应对个别发音，”里安农说。

她的牙医推测，问题可能出在她的舌系带明显较厚，从而导致舌头生来就比普通人的短，这种情况被称为“舌系带短缩”或者更通俗地称为“结舌”。

在与父母进和语言导师商讨后，里安农决定接受手术改善现状，虽然她的结舌对说英语没有任何影响。

里安农在诺丁汉女王医疗中心接受了舌系带切除术，这使她的舌头比原来长出1厘米，以前发不了的单词现在都能行了。

“这对我来说非常重要，因为我是个完美主义者，不把事情做得完美我就会烦躁。”

“也许有人会说这样的行为太极端了，但这和做整形手术是一个道理。整形手术让人们对自己的相貌更自信，而这个手术让我对自己的表达能力更自信。这对我来说就像拔颗牙那么简单”， 里安农补充道。

里安农是通过在学校的同学开始对韩国文化感兴趣，她对韩国流行音乐和电视剧非常着迷。

她说：“我大部分的空闲时间都用来接触一些关于韩国的东西。现在，我会参观在诺丁汉的韩国教堂，在那里，我用韩语读圣经，我已经迫不及待地想去看看真正的韩国了。”

目前，里安农正在等待高考成绩，她希望能够在谢菲尔德大学学习韩国研究和工商管理。