Why Are South Koreans Trimming Their Tongues?: Shortcut to Better English

Verto · October 18, 2003, 17:57

http://www.msnbc.com/news/981625.asp?cp1=1

Excerpts:

Quote:

SEOUL, Oct. 17 — Chop a centimeter 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.

Quote:

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.
“Those who have a short frenulum (a strap of tissue linking the tongue to the floor of the mouth) can face problems pronouncing some characters due to a disturbance in lateral movements of the tongue,” said Bae Jung-ho, an oral surgeon at Seoul’s Yonsei Severance Hospital, who operated on the six-year-old last month.
Bae said it takes about five minutes to complete the operation, called a frenotomy, which slices 1 to 1.5 cm (about half an inch) off the frenulum to make the tongue more flexible.
“There is a razor-thin risk of complications and, unless it is the best option possible, we don’t recommend it.”
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.
The doctor said he performed the surgery, which costs 150,000 won ($127), once or twice per month.

Q Classic · October 18, 2003, 18:33

koreans are psychotic, i thought you knew this.

this is the same group of people who have women cutting nerves in their calves to make the muscle fall--since east asian women have something called "moodari", or radish legs, where the muscle is concentrated at the top of the calf rather than evenly distributed like in western women.

it's also the same group where you have people cutting their eyelids to make them more round and less slanted.

Verto · October 18, 2003, 18:35

I had no idea about those things.

Pyschotic is putting it mildly.

Gangerolf · October 18, 2003, 18:37

flied lice

KrazyHorse · October 18, 2003, 18:45

Plus they beat each other with shoes. Or something. And they animate things.

Everything I know about South Korea I learned from the Simpsons...

Q Classic · October 18, 2003, 18:51

beat each other with shoes? never seen this.

"my beautiful girl mari" is a gorgeous example of native korean animation, rather than outsourced animation from japan and the states.

MRT144 · October 18, 2003, 19:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Q Cubed
koreans are psychotic, i thought you knew this.

this is the same group of people who have women cutting nerves in their calves to make the muscle fall--since east asian women have something called "moodari", or radish legs, where the muscle is concentrated at the top of the calf rather than evenly distributed like in western women.

it's also the same group where you have people cutting their eyelids to make them more round and less slanted.

i like radish legs

Q Classic · October 18, 2003, 19:11

as do i. i also like the beautiful black hair, but dyeing's all the rage.

Az · October 18, 2003, 19:26

scary ****. They're cutting one of the more sensitive body parts. Heck, it's only slightly better that female... you know.

yuck.

Oerdin · October 18, 2003, 19:43

Rather then chopping off pieces of their child's body why not just send them to a summer school camp in an English speaking country so that their child can become fluent in English?

Gangerolf · October 18, 2003, 19:47

trimming tongue: $127
summer camp: $2000?

KrazyHorse · October 18, 2003, 19:56

Plus, even if they end up not being businessmen they can have a career in the fetish porn industry...

"Show me that short little tongue of yours. Oh yeah..."

Az · October 18, 2003, 19:56

solid pratical choice.

KrazyHorse · October 18, 2003, 19:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Gangerolf
trimming tongue: $127
summer camp: $2000?

Knowing that your mother mutilated you to advance your career prospects: priceless

Q Classic · October 18, 2003, 20:14

no, you don't understand koreans. parents drive their children to succeed by any means necessary.

so odds are, if they're crazy enough to trim the tongues, they'll also send the kid to summer camp, try to hire a private tutor, and buy a sensory immersion tank where inside they've rigged a walkman that plays english language tapes.

Sandman · October 18, 2003, 20:19

Sounds pretty tame compared to circumcision.

Az · October 18, 2003, 20:36

Nah. As a person who had it done at a relatively old age, I must say that that part is FAR less sensitive.

Bosh · October 18, 2003, 20:45

Bah wasteing good money that could be spent on me babysi... er teaching their children

Quote:

beat each other with shoes? never seen this.

Yeah but they wear their shoes with the back of the shoe pushed down under the heel, so there's nothing between the back of their foot and the air besides their socks. So wrong, so wrong.

Quote:

i also like the beautiful black hair, but dyeing's all the rage.

Bah! How can anyone not love orange highlights?

Q Classic · October 18, 2003, 20:48

Quote:

Yeah but they wear their shoes with the back of the shoe pushed down under the heel, so there's nothing between the back of their foot and the air besides their socks. So wrong, so wrong.

what's wrong with that? i do it all the time...

MRT144 · October 18, 2003, 20:53

Quote:

Originally posted by Q Cubed
no, you don't understand Asians. parents drive their children to succeed by any means necessary.

i ammended it to be more correct

Sandman · October 18, 2003, 20:58

Quote:

Originally posted by Azazel
Nah. As a person who had it done at a relatively old age, I must say that that part is FAR less sensitive.

I disagree. I'd rather lose my frenulum than my frenulum.

Bosh · October 18, 2003, 21:02

Quote:

what's wrong with that? i do it all the time...

If you want to wear shoes like that why ruin the backs of the good pair of shoes (especially expensive leather shoes)? Just get tevas or flip-flops or something.

OzzyKP · October 18, 2003, 22:06

la la, oops

OzzyKP · October 18, 2003, 22:08

Thats nothing, check out what the crazy Americans are doing:

DaShi · October 18, 2003, 23:56

Show off.

They're not trimming their tongues to make them shorter. They're cutting that part under the tongue to make it more flexible, which gives me the creeps just thinking about it.

Sikander · October 19, 2003, 01:37

Quote:

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

Knowing that your mother mutilated you to advance your career prospects: priceless

Zero · October 19, 2003, 02:10

This just seems psychotic to us, but you can find for every society a bunch of stupid whack things people do that may seem odd to foreigners.

Like pioneering the selling of water in US... and selling of fresh oxygen in japan.

OzzyKP · October 19, 2003, 02:28

"They're not trimming their tongues to make them shorter. They're cutting that part under the tongue to make it more flexible, which gives me the creeps just thinking about it."

More so than snake guy?

Saint Marcus · October 22, 2003, 08:48

Asians parents mutulating their kids to talk more "white", asian teens dyeing their hair blonde, etc.

Nazi racial theories weren't so far fetched after all. Everyone wants to be a superior whitey!

Drake Tungsten · October 22, 2003, 11:30

Quote:

what's wrong with that? i do it all the time...

I'm with Boshko on this one. Ruins a decent pair of shoes.

Quote:

Everyone wants to be a superior whitey!

Doesn't bother me as long as it continues to work to my advantage.