My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has

published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                                One thing I noticed while in both South Korea and Taiwan are their

interests in learning the languages of their neighbors. In the case of South Korea it is learning

Mandarin Chinese and in the case of Taiwan it is learning Japanese (of course, they already

know Mandarin in Taiwan). In the case of South Korea, it is not hard to figure out why there is

a growing craze to learn Mandarin. China is right next door, there are many Chinese-run businesses

and connections in South Korea, many ethnic Chinese and Chinese of Korean descent go to live

in South Korea, and many Koreans now do business and go to live in China. I have seen more

Bank of China branches in South Korea than any other country in Asia. Japanese is still popular

among many Koreans, especially with Japan also being next door. But learning Mandarin is

over-taking that and also the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea is now higher than

the number of Japanese visitors. In Taiwan, it seems the opposite is true. There is a large

Japanese language craze where more and more Taiwanese want to learn the Japanese language.

There are a large number of Japanese businesses in Taiwan, and many Taiwanese who do 

business in Japan. Many Japanese go to live in Taiwan, and there is a huge variety of products

made in Japan that I have not seen in the United States since the 1980's. For many Japanese

living in Taiwan, the place is the most friendly country outside of Japan, and Japanese tourists

are probably the largest number of visitors to Taiwan at present (especially after relations

between Taiwan and China have become not so good).