Korean Job Discussion Forums

[charlieDD]

How often does your building management get on the public address system?

When it came on the first time, how did you feel? ( I felt a total privacy invasion! Big Brother! )

What's the silliest thing you've heard them announce? The most urgent?

Have you been tempted to cut the wires? ( I know a guy who has! )

Does the neighbor's smoke vent in through yours? ( Mine did; had to tape it over with clear cellophane tape to seal it. BTW, Neighbor's cooking smells find their ways into my apartment through the walls and ceiling somehow. Mind you, the building is new, sort of high end, less than two years old; how did it ever pass health code? {{ Most cities / states, etc. require there be no sharing of air among apartments in order to avoid an airborne disease infecting the whole building.}} )

"bing, binG, biNG, bING, BING!"

[oneofthesarahs]

Hahahahaha...I never know what they're saying because not only is my Korean quite bad, but they also only announce things when I'm half asleep in the morning. So hopefully they never announce "Please evacuate. The building is on fire." Ding DING ding!

[Qinella]

I really don't like the announcements. I used to think they were kinda cool, but now just annoying. I would certainly snip the wires if not for the fact that I'd have to stack a chair on the dining table to reach that high. Too scary.

The announcements are always totally pointless. Like, when they were going around to various apartments to do repairs that would be very noisy, they would first announce that they were gonna do it. So it's like, they make sure everyone in the building is bothered by the construction rather than just those who have to hear the drills.

There's never once been an important announcement. It's always about the elevator being closed, or some floor's hall being waxed.. and they always repeat the announcement twice. Sucks sucks sucks.

[Corporal]

Attention. Whoever's car is blocking the other cars in the parking lots, can you please come and move it right now. Thank you.

Attention. Your water will be shut off in about five minutes. We have to clean the water tank. You won't have any hot water for the next week. Please go to the sauna if you must have a hot shower.

Attention. No water of any kind will be available after 10 am tomorrow and until 6 pm.

Attention. Please remember not to use your washing machines late at night, as the noise disturbs your neighbors. Thank you.

[igotthisguitar]

[djsmnc]

I took the cover off mine and stuffed some fabric and cardboard to mute the sound before

[Tobacco Dreams]

It's so freaking Orwellian, ain't it?

And just that much worse if you either don't understand, or only get the gist of it (as I tend to do).

So far, what I've worked out is that since

a) I don't have a car which needs moving

and

b) I don't park a bicycle out in the corridor

I can pretty well ignore the announcements.

To anyone who DOES have a car, or a bike:

Just move it an apartment block down the street each time you hear an announcement. Then retrieve it the next day. That ougtta do the job.

[helly]

My old apartment used to advertise what was on special in the local supermarket. No joke.

[JongnoGuru]

[Dysupes]

The apartment PAs are absolutely and without a doubt the most useless and annoying invasion of privacy in Korea. Not only has there not been ONE announcement of any importance in the year we've been living here but they also seem to make the conscious choice of announcing the same damn things over and over again at the most delightful times (the best one was 7am on a Saturday). Today, we did hit rock bottom though. Usually it's the usual crap like Corporal mentioned but today they, and I'm really not joking, came on to tell us that... "It's cold." They went into further detail but really, they came on and disturbed the entire building to tell us the temperature outside. It definitely tops the monthly announcements telling everyone the penultimate and ultimate days of the month that they do in fact have to pay all their bills in the next day or so. And this message is not only essential but important enough to repeat four times over two days. I kinda wish that Korean people could operate and function as independent people sometimes (my wife who is Korean dislikes all that crap too so I'd have to say I got me a good one! )...

Dysupes

[Kimchieluver]

[periwinkle]

[quote="JongnoGuru"]

In addition to the ones Corp has listed, my favourite was the perverted/drunken-sounding ajosshis who'd get on the microphone any old hour of the day they pleased and say: "...huh....huh-huh...huh....huh, huh, huh ....huh huh...", and then just stop. [quote]

This is the funniest thing I've read on here in ages! You aren't the only one with Beavis and Butthead making announcements- those two seem to get around quite a bit~

[ED209]

Wow- this is just insane. I thought I had it rough with the blue vans selling dead squid. I saw in a documentary about north korea that every house has a radio tuned to government station which you can turn down but never off. Orwell has not left the building it seems.

My advice is to buy a screwdriver and take it to those speakers. Not your property? well it's not their privacy or sanity.

[superacidjax]

[JongnoGuru]