ABSTRACT
In major Philippine urban centers like metropolitan Manila, Baguio City, Angeles, and Davao, it is not uncommon to hear the locals exclaim how “the Koreans are taking over!” with grim-faced guardedness or cheerful resignation. For over a decade now, a steady stream of students and small entrepreneurs has been flowing in from the Republic of Korea (South Korea, hereafter), and has introduced visible and not always well-integrated changes in the city fabric. If only because of the proliferation of commercial signs written in Hangul popping up in the most unlikely street corners and lower-end neighborhoods, signs which are of course unintelligible to the vast majority of Filipinos, the Korean population is making its presence abundantly palpable. This is a significant transnational phenomenon, as a more disciplined culture of Northeast Asians attempts to plant itself in a historically more relaxed Southeast Asian culture influenced strongly by Spanish/Latino-American and North American attitudes. Urban changes are noticeably manifested in the form of corner groceries, evangelical churches, travel agencies, and English language schools catering to Koreans. Even odder to the host culture is the fact that Koreans are actually staying for years at a time—despite numerous perceived inefficiencies and travails presented by the developing cities.
