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How awful is the PA system at your university?

 
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rioux



Joined: 26 Apr 2012
Posts: 880

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 1:06 am    Post subject: How awful is the PA system at your university? Reply with quote

Mine drives me up the wall. Bugles blare at 6:30am. At 7am to about 7:30am it goes on again (I think they are some kind of announcements?). Next is from noon to about 12:30. Then it runs from about 5 to 6 at night.
Saturday and Sunday is at least quiet.
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LarssonCrew



Joined: 06 Jun 2009
Posts: 1308

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 2:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep, same with me.

It's sometimes so loud it's over bearing.

And it plays some awful music over and over even when there's nothing to say.

Having said that, you think bugles are bad? I work at a sports university. Imagine tennis student's going to the park under my window and slamming a ball against the wall from 6am until 7. Just a constant thudding over and over.
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Shroob



Joined: 02 Aug 2010
Posts: 1339

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 3:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

No complaints here, can't hear a thing in my apartment.

Though, in the classroom it's different. We have a bell that signals the start, break and end of lessons. The bell has been broken for a while now, it normally 'chimes' strongly the first time, then continues for another three 'chimes' getting weaker and more distorted each time. After 11 weeks of teaching, it's starting to grate.
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MisterButtkins



Joined: 03 Oct 2009
Posts: 1221

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I absolutely hate it. Part of me wants to grapple onto the roof of the building where the blaring speakers are and throw them off.

I had the students talk about the PA system in class last year and was shocked that most of them apparently didn't have a problem with it. They said it was a good way to get news and listen to music. They don't seem to value quiet... at all.

I feel like, for every CHinese university with a PA system, they should torture the administrators 1984 style until they realize and know how hopelessly stupid and annoying the entire thing is.
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Javelin of Radiance



Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 8:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I don't have too much noise on campus but I do live right next to a small temple. They ring a bell all the time. I asked someone the other day what the purpose of the bell ringing was and the answer was "to let people know there's a temple here." Thank Buddha! I never would have known that without the bell.
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lemak



Joined: 19 Nov 2011
Posts: 368

PostPosted: Sat Nov 24, 2012 11:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thankfully nothing. I know there are some around the student's dorms that play music some mornings at 6.30 am and then again in the evenings, but it's far enough away from my place that generally even with the windows open I can't hear it. The students complain about the early start though.
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kungfuman



Joined: 31 May 2012
Posts: 1749
Location: In My Own Private Idaho

PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 1:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In my main classroom I went to work one day with a pair of wire clippers. Umm WHAT pa system?

Same goes with our teachers office. TWO speakers in the teachers office. Those wire clippers came in handy!
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GeminiTiger



Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 999
Location: China, 2005--Present

PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 1:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

There is a preschool at the front of the school that plays music everyday, and on certain days can I can hear it all the way to my flat in the back of the school. When I teach English class, each and every morning it disturbs my class at right about 9am.

The school itself has a horrible PA system that drowns every dormitory unbearably loud looped bullshit that, as other have reported, the students seem to enjoy or at least easily tolerate. That noise thankfully gets nowhere near my room.
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choudoufu



Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC

PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 2:31 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

every morning at 6:30 they play the same damn song, which is
also the one they play on endless loop during parades and sporting
events. "march of the comrades" or "lei feng rock" or something.
gets reeeeeaaaaallly annoying after the first three hundred repetitions.

pa is switched on during the 20-minute breaks between classes,
blaring some godawful lady gaga, or more recently, classic 60's
rock......in chinese. (blasphemy! you can't do that to chuck berry)

admin was nice enough to disconnect the speakers near the teacher's
barracks. they also posted a sign limiting the hours available for
playing basketball on the court outside my window. now if only
they would teach the students how to read. getting tired of standing
on the balcony yelling "hey you kids, git off my lawn!"
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fat_chris



Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing

PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

choudoufu wrote:
getting tired of standing on the balcony yelling "hey you kids, git off my lawn!"


[shaking fist and waving cane in the air]

Cool

Warm regards,
fat_chris
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choudoufu



Joined: 25 May 2010
Posts: 3325
Location: Mao-berry, PRC

PostPosted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fat_chris wrote:
choudoufu wrote:
getting tired of standing on the balcony yelling "hey you kids, git off my lawn!"


[shaking fist and waving cane in the air]

Cool

Warm regards,
fat_chris


it's a walker, dang it all.
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fat_chris



Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing

PostPosted: Mon Nov 26, 2012 5:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

choudoufu wrote:
fat_chris wrote:
choudoufu wrote:
getting tired of standing on the balcony yelling "hey you kids, git off my lawn!"


[shaking fist and waving cane in the air]

Cool

Warm regards,
fat_chris


it's a walker, dang it all.


How about a motorized wheelchair? The Rascal?

Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode with George working at PlayNow.

Warm regards,
fat_chris
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fat_chris



Joined: 10 Sep 2003
Posts: 3198
Location: Beijing

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The attached primary school at the uni where I work has a PA that I hear from my office after lunch. It usually features an annoying female voice that speaks with over-exaggerated tones and her voice often sounds waaaaaay too enthusiastic. Evil or Very Mad

They were also starting to overplay that Lemon Tree song with Sting singing...on a daily basis at the end of lunch. Ugh.

But! They just played a 20 second or so audio clip of the guitar solo at the end of Queen's "We Will Rock You" that made me laugh out loud because that was completely unexpected and quite random.

I will give them another chance.

Cool

Warm regards,
fat_chris
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Javelin of Radiance



Joined: 01 Jul 2009
Posts: 1187
Location: The West

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm sometimes thinking Chinese people LOVE unnecessary noise, but when I point these examples out to students they deny it, and suggest they hate it too. If that's true then why is it perpetuated everywhere?
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GeminiTiger



Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 999
Location: China, 2005--Present

PostPosted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well it's a form of control to establish routines. if you live under a
loudspeaker that goes off at 6:30, chances are that is when your
getting up like it or not.

also a surrogate mommy of sorts.
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