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American teen places 2nd in Korean speech contest

In the summer of 2007, then seventh grader Alyssa Donovan was walking along the her school`s hallway when she momentarily froze after seeing a Korean-American boy. This was the first time for her to express interest in the opposite sex and Korea.

Four years later, the American girl became the first non-Korean to win second prize in a Korean speech contest Saturday, which was hosted by the U.S. National Association for Korean Schools in San Francisco.

In a phone interview with The Dong-A Ilbo Tuesday, Donovan spoke Korean as if the language was her mother tongue. She used difficult words in putting on a surprising performance for an American with no Korean relatives.

She lives in Maine and is in the 11th grade at Deering High School in Portland, Maine.

"I started to study Korean because I had a crush on a Korean boy. But what drove me further was the beauty of the Korean language. Korean can be spoken very smoothly and is full of lyricism. I like Gyeongsang dialect the most probably because I have many Korean friends from that region", she said.

Her parents and friends had criticized her for learning Korean. Her mother Linda Douglas recalls wondering why her daughter wanted to learn Korean instead of Japanese or Chinese.

Donovan came up with her Korean name "Han Min-a" by herself. "Min" means people in Korean and "a" means beauty. Impressed with their daughter`s enthusiasm, her parents started to appreciate her learning Korean. Douglas said over the phone that she is proud of her daughter because of her outstanding capability in language and that she understands Korea better thanks to her daughter.

Donovan said her personality went from being passive and reserved into positive and enthusiastic after learning Korean. Her grades also improved as she was ranked second in her class of 300.

The teen said she wants to major in Korean at a Korean university and become a diplomat specializing in Korea to popularize the language throughout the world.

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