Koreans surgically mutilate themselves to speak better Engrish

Discussion Open Forum
1

This would be funny if it weren’t so sad.

story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … rea_tongue

[quote=“Kim Kyoung-wha”]Yahoo! News Fri, Oct 17, 2003

Koreans have surgery to speak better English
Thu Oct 16,11:08 PM ET

By Kim Kyoung-wha

SEOUL (Reuters) - Chop a centimetre or so off your tongue and become a fluent English speaker.

That is the hope that recently drove one mother to take her six-year-old son for surgery aimed at ridding him of his Korean accent when speaking the language of choice in global business.

Driven by a desire to give their kids an edge in an increasingly competitive society, a surprising number of South Koreans have turned to the knife in a seemingly drastic bid to help their offspring perfect their English.

Bae said that he had received many inquiries about the operation, mostly for children aged between 12 months and 10 years. Of these, only 10 to 20 percent had led to surgery.

For a tangible improvement for those with ankyloglossia – the medical term for those with a short frenulum – months of language training is needed even after surgery.

“It takes time to see pronunciation actually improve as picking up a language or saying it properly is a complicated process to master,” he added.

…

Robin Bulman, an American living in Seoul who has an adopted five-year-old Korean daughter, felt that surgery might hurt a child’s self-confidence.

“I think it’s gross. Mutilating children’s tongues is not the solution. If a parent takes his child into the surgery and then, if the child is still unable to speak unaccented English, what would that do to the child’s self-esteem?”

Bulman says her daughter speaks perfect English, admittedly with a strong Montana accent.

“If there’s just some real problem with Koreans speaking English, a physiological problem with their bodies, how can a pure Korean child speak perfect English?”

…

Many Koreans believe an early start in English could give their children an edge and so do not hesitate to send them overseas or at least to evening classes.[/quote]

2

Ok, who among you is going to open up the first

frenotomy busihiban

Great word that. I’ve 50 Gunaxi for the best insult using the word frenotomy that appears in the next hour.

Chou

3

I won’t send my kids to go under the knife just to speak english…
if they don’t speak english, I’ll ask them which second language they prefer.

ax

4

[quote=“ax”]I won’t send my kids to go under the knife just to speak English…
if they don’t speak English, I’ll ask them which second language they prefer.

ax[/quote]
Better hope it’s not Hebrew – they have to carve up some important parts to be able to speak it properly. :slight_smile:

5

[quote=“MaPoDoFu”][quote=“ax”]I won’t send my kids to go under the knife just to speak English…
if they don’t speak English, I’ll ask them which second language they prefer.

ax[/quote]
Better hope it’s not Hebrew – they have to carve up some important parts to be able to speak it properly. :slight_smile:[/quote]

Thats halarious. But oly one token guanxi point for you, seeing is your loaded to the frenotmy with them.

Chou

6

The follow-up to the story of Korean kids having surgery on their tongues so they can speak English better…

In 20% of the cases, the kids ended up missing parts of their brains, because the doctor thought the parents said “lobotomy,” not “frenotomy.” I guess the parents should have gotten the surgery first (helps with the pronunciation, ya know?).

7

[quote=“HakkaSonic”]The follow-up to the story of Korean kids having surgery on their tongues so they can speak English better…

In 20% of the cases, the kids ended up missing parts of their brains, because the doctor thought the parents said “lobotomy,” not “frenotomy.” I guess the parents should have gotten the surgery first (helps with the pronunciation, ya know?).[/quote]

Not exactly what I was looking for, but Hakkasonic is the 50GX winner placing first out of 1. Don’t spend it all in one place.

Chou

8

the parents should get the lobotomy first.

9

I am not a doctor - but I heard somewhere that the smart thing was to cut the skin thing under the tongue.

Linggum or something like that

10

[quote=“rian”]I am not a doctor - but I heard somewhere that the smart thing was to cut the skin thing under the tongue.

Linggum or something like that[/quote]
Well, er, uh, I suppose they could put the lingam under the tongue before cutting it. . . .

m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?b … &va=lingam

11

Now that the laughing has stopped - what do you call that piece of skin - membrane - or what ever the technical name is for the thing that stops you swallowing your tongue - or giving your friend a greater (maybe not the place to go there:)))

I did mean cut just a little of it

12

It’s a frenum, or according to Yahoo it’s a frenulum, but according to dictionary.com, that’s part of a moth.

13

This is the best I can get from my Encarta dic

ANATOMY small membrane: a small fold of skin or membrane that limits the movement of an organ, typically smaller than a frenum

Encarta?World English Dictionary ?& § 1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Anyway - It stops the girl sucking your tongue out :slight_smile: