Pains Koreans go through to Speak“Proper” English

Two issues inspired my decision to republish the article you will read below. First, in my January 24, 2016 article titled “Those Annoyingly Fake Trans-Atlantic English Accents at Nigerian Airports,” I made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Nigerian airport announcers could “emulate South Koreans and commit to what is called lingual frenectomy, which is the removal […]

Two issues inspired my decision to republish the article you will read below. First, in my January 24, 2016 article titled “Those Annoyingly Fake Trans-Atlantic English Accents at Nigerian Airports,” I made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Nigerian airport announcers could “emulate South Koreans and commit to what is called lingual frenectomy, which is the removal of certain tissues in the tongue that hinder the ability to speak English with native-speaker accents. Yes, I am not making this up; you can look it up. Some South Koreans cut the skin of their tongues so they can have perfect American accents.”
Many people were incredulous when they read this. They thought I made up the fact that South Koreans perform surgery on their tongues in order to be able to speak English with “proper” American accents.
Second, each time my column calls attention to grammatical errors committed by members of Nigeria’s political elite, I often get comments from their supporters to the effect that developed non-English speaking countries like South Korea and Japan don’t give a care about English proficiency, and that we also shouldn’t. Of course, this is an improper comparison because English is not only Nigeria’s official language, it is also our language of instruction at all levels of education, whereas it is not in South Korea, Japan and other developed non-English speaking countries.
However, although English isn’t their official language, many people in South Korea and Japan (and even China) go to unimaginable extremes to acquire proficiency in the language, contrary to the claims of the “English-is-not-my-language” whiners in Nigeria who say only “mentally colonized” Nigerians care about English.
In this January 18, 2004 Los Angeles Times article titled, “S. Koreans Accent Surgery in Bid for Flawless English,” you will read of the ridiculous extent some South Koreans go just to speak good English. Enjoy:
SEOUL – South Korean mothers know few bounds in trying to give their kids a leg up in speaking English. They play them nursery rhymes in the womb, hire pricey tutors for toddlers, send preschoolers to America to pick up the accent.
But now they’re even turning to surgery to sort out misplaced L and R sounds, underscoring the dark side of the crushing social pressures involved in getting a highly competitive society in shape for a globalized world.
The surgery involves snipping the thin tissue under the tongue to make it longer and supposedly nimbler. The government is so dismayed that its National Human Rights Commission has made a movie to scare the public into ceasing the practice.
It shows a young mother, obsessed with her son’s pronunciation at the kindergarten’s all-English Christmas play, rushing him to the clinic for a quick fix. The boy screams as the mother and nurses hold him down, the mother insisting: “It’s all for his future.”
“Many viewers close their eyes at the surgery scenes,” said director Park Jin-pyo, who used footage from a real operation. “I wanted them to see how our society tramples our children’s human rights in the name of their future.”
The English craze among preschool children took off four years ago when the government made English classes mandatory starting in the third grade.
Flawless English was once ridiculed as snobbish and even unpatriotic. Now it’s a status symbol and prized by business and colleges.
“Many parents have an illusion that good English could change their children’s lives,” said Song Young-hye, who runs “Wonderland,” one of the thousands of English-language schools that have mushroomed in South Korea’s English-teaching industry.
The medical procedure, called a frenulotomy, is used in the West in cases where the tissue under the tongue is abnormal and causes a speech impediment. No statistics exist on how many Korean children undergo it.
Although local media say it is widespread in Seoul’s wealthier districts, doctors call the reports exaggerated.
“Tongue-Tie” struck an immediate chord when it was seen in “If You Were Me,” a compendium of six short films about human rights in Korea released in cinemas to enthusiastic reviews in November.
Doctors scoff at the notion that the Korean tongue is too short or inflexible for proper English, noting that thousands of Korean Americans speak unaccented English without surgery.
Experts say practice, not surgery, is the key.
“Doing the surgery on a normal kid just for English pronunciation doesn’t make anatomical sense at all,” said Park Bom-chung at Seoul’sKangnam Sacred Heart Hospital.
The operation takes 20 to 30 minutes under local anesthetic.
Noh Kyung-sun, a child psychologist at Seoul’s Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, calls the surgery “crazy” and cites the case of a 3 1/2-year-old to illustrate the parental zeal that disrupts children’s lives.
“That child came to my office and saw a big Jackson Pollock poster on the wall and could read each letter of the artist’s name at the bottom — J-A-C-K-S-O-N — but could speak neither English nor Korean,” he said.
The government has tried to absorb some of the overheated private English-instruction industry into the public school system, hiring more teachers, including native speakers. But there is no sign that the craze is losing steam.
The mania has even induced changes in the Korean language, like “goose fathers.” These are dads who work in South Korea and fly to the United States for seasonal reunions with their kids — who have been transplanted to the America just to learn English.
Re: Re: Zuckerberg, Facebook and Why Hausa is a “Unique” Language
Below is a response to Dr. Dahiru Muhammad Argungu’s response to my article from two weeks ago with the above title. Not being a native Hausa speaker myself, this is all educational for me. Enjoy:
By Ibrahim Yusufu ([email protected])
I am sorry to say unfortunately it is people like you, Dr. Dahiru Muhammad Argungu, that will contribute to the killing of otherwise wonderful Hausa Language. Hausa is not written like the German Language. The following should be written as follows not the way you wrote them in your article.
i.    Bala’iyafadawamotar
ii.    Motarna da bala’ingudu
iii.    Wannanyaronshege ne, baya da uba

5. (i)    Hausa badabobace
(ii)    Nan ne iyakar Hausa
(iii)    Ba ya da Hausa kokadan
(iv)    BanganeHausarkiba
(v)    WannanHausar Zaria ce
(vi)    Hausancemanishi

4. (ii)    Aminuyarasu
   (iii)    Mary ta mutu cannot surely be (female, muslim, Hausa) but (female, christian, non-Hausa).
   (iv)       John yamutu cannot surely be (male, muslim, Hausa) but (male, christian, non-Hausa)
You failed to point out another uniqueness of the Hausa Language that plurals can be formed not only with an infix but also by using other affixes. In the example you gave there are other ways of writing the plurals as follows:-

SINGULAR                           PLURAL PLURAL
gurguguragugurguna
murhumurahumurhuna
turmiturameturmuna
kurtukuratakurtuna/kuratai
kwalbakwalabekwalbuna

Most disturbing however, is the Search Page you produced at the top of your article. This is a place where probably millions visit to know and learn the Hausa Language. May be “Experts” like you give the translations. “Body Parts” surely cannot be translated as “GabobinJiki”. Gabobi means “Joints”(singular gaba) and GabobinJiki can only be translated as “Body Joints”. “Body Parts” to use your “infix” should be translated as “SassanJiki” (Sashe singular). Calf was translated as “Kauri” which means thickness. Or the translator means Kauri which translates as the smell of burnt object, and therefore does not give the required meaning. Probably the translator means “Kwabri” which translates as “Leg”. “Calf” in Hausa means “Damtse”.
There are many “native Hausa speakers” like you who jealously and zealously guard the Hausa Language. So please do not mislead those who cannot detect your mistakes.
I hope you will also draw the attention of the operators of that Search Website so as to avoid the massacre of the Hausa Language. In the Search Page shown there are three serious mistakes out of eight words illustrated. So there must be many mistakes in the Search Website that should be detected and corrected.