Legend states that in 2333 BC, Tan'gun, grandson of the Creator, founded the kingdom of Choson, or "Morning Freshness", and thus the Korean people began. Surrounded on three sides by Russia, China, and Japan, the Korean people have endured hundreds of invasion and domination attempts, including four hundred years of Chinese military rule over the Choson Kingdom, Mongol invasions during the 13th and 14th centuries, and, more recently , Japanese colonization from 1910 to 1945. (Soh, 2006). This has led the Korean people to adapt parts of other cultures while maintaining a strong cultural identity of their own. Korea is considered one of the very few homogeneous cultures in the world. With the exception of a population of approximately 20,000 Chinese immigrants located primarily in the city of Seoul, the people of North and South Korea identify as ethnically Korean, all sharing a common language and culture, with a slight sense of regionalism among the different parts of the peninsula. (Soh, 2006) The inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula are called Koreans or Choson. The names used to identify themselves come from the two longest-lived dynasties in their history, the Koryo dynasty, which lasted from 935 to 1392, and the Choson dynasty, which lasted from 1392 to 1910. (Seth, 2011) During the Koryo dynasty, Korea has established itself as a country of technological progress and innovation. In 1234 they became the first country to use movable metal type, a full 216 years before the invention of the printing press in Europe. (Nash, 2000) Today, it can be observed that South Korea is making great progress in the fields of technology industry and automotive industry, with two of its major exports... middle of paper... anham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Soh, C.S. (2001). South Korea. In C. R. Ember and M. Ember (Eds.), Countries and their cultures (Vol. 2, pp. 1214-1228). New York: Macmillan USA reference. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX3401700127&v=2.1&u=bel45990&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=247d94eef6109ba948afda9069b196ddStarr, Frederick. (1918). Korean Buddhism. The Journal of Breed Development, 9(1), 71-84. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29738270U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012). Digest of Education Statistics, 2011 (NCES 2012-001), Table 153. Retrieved from website: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=171U.S. Department of Labor, (2011). The Asian American workforce on the rebound. Retrieved from website: http://www.dol.gov/_sec/media/reports/asianlaborforce/