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。