Jungguk sarami manneyo!

Which is to say, 중국 사람이 많네요!

Which is to say, "There sure are a lot of Chinese people!"

Of the 1000 or so students studying Korean here at Yonsei's Korean Language Institute, it seems that at least half are from Mainland China. You hear Chinese spoken everywhere: in the hallways, on campus, even on the bustling sidewalks of Shinchon.

Perhaps this will not surprise most of you. Take a look at the map, and you'll see that Korea dangles off its monstrous neighbor most precariously. In addition to geographical proximity, there are over a billion Chinese people. Why shouldn't several hundred of them make the short journey here to learn Korean? After all, look at all the Canadians in America learning English. (Okay, sorry, that's a cheap joke.)

But it does surprise me. Not too long ago the Chinese weren't going anywhere. They were too poor and isolated. And then, when they did start going places, they all wanted to learn English. They went to the US, England, and Australia. Why would a Chinese person bother with little insignificant Korea?

But things have changed now. Not only are Koreans aligning themselves more closely with China than the US, in terms of their economic (and perhaps political) future, they are having a major cultural impact on Asia. Korean movies, TV shows, celebrities, and music have been extremely popular in China for the last decade. (When I lived in Hong Kong, there were Korean movies playing everywhere. That was over 6 years ago.)

So the Chinese here, and I expect they'll be here for a long time to come.