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).