Alyssa Donovan, 14, of Maine became the first person of non-Korean heritage to win the second prize in the Korean speech contest on July 16 hosted by the U.S. National Association for Korean Schools in Burlingame, Calif.
Donovan placed second in the competition after cruising through the regional preliminaries ― she was first in the preliminaries of the New England Chapter. She beat over 300 participants to claim victory.
Donovan came up with her Korean name, Han Min-a, by herself. She became interested in the language after falling in unrequited love with a Korean-American boy. "I started studying Korean in April, 2007. At first, I studied it because I had a crush on a Korean-American boy," Donovan said.
Donovan began by learning Korean on the Internet and reached a reasonable level of conversational and written in fluency within just six months, including grasping difficult words of Chinese origin. She progressed through various literary translations and recently read the four Shakespearean tragedies in Korean.
She first visited Korea last August and spent two weeks playing traditional percussion instruments such as the janggu (hourglass-shape drum), and listening to pansori and gayageum (multi-stringed zither) performances. Pansori is a traditional form of Korean opera. She hopes to visit Korea again.
Donovan, who said she is considering attending a Korean university, also confessed she is a K-pop addict. She has a particular fondness for Seo Tai-ji, SG Wannabe and Park Hyo-shin, as well as soap operas like "Winter Sonata" and "Coffee Prince." Her favorite Korean dish is soybean soup.