Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Omkara]

I've been going to this gym, which is for the most part quite nice, save for the terrible music which is so loud that it overwhelms everything. It's this techno-sample crap laced with pornographic lyrics which no one but the westerners understand.

One part that makes me crazy about it is that they'll sample some good music, such as someone like Van Morrison, put it over a hyper-caffeinated beat, and then the next lyrics sampled will be something like, "Face down, a$$ up, that's the way we like to F@#k."

My god!

Do most Koreans actually like this stuff, or are they just so polite that they don't complain? I see a lot of people wearing iPods, etc. . .they must have to blow their own ears out to tune the crap out!

Are Koreans generally more tolerant of noise pollution?

[taobenli]

YES I think most Koreans are more tolerant of noise pollution. We probably would be too if we had grown up with it.

My gym plays bad music, but not nearly so bad as what you describe. (Usually a lot of R&B- much too slow to be work-out music, but when I look around at a lot of Koreans "working out" and not even breaking a sweat I guess I'm not surprised). Also, they almost never "blast" the music- it's not that bad. My gym's near Sogang University.

What really bothers me is the dudes smoking outside with the door open right onto the exercise floor. Shut the door, dammit, your second-hand smoke is not part of our "wellbing"!

[Return Jones]

[Cynical Optimist]

Yeah, my gym plays crappy music too. When it starts to bother me, I just use it as motivation to push harder thru my sets.

Once it was playing the same terrible song for like 20 minutes. I had to tell the lady in my horrible Korean, "Music. 20 minutes. Same!" She did change it, so that was nice. I at least like a little variety in my bad music.

[everydavid]

I used to go to the gyms in Korea too, but the music forced me to buy a bike instead and go riding.
More fun and better exercise is what I get now.

[Ginormousaurus]

[Billy Pilgrim]

Yep, bring your own music. TIme just flies.

[indytrucks]

My gym has been playing the same CD continuously for two years. I know the playlist by heart.

Needless to say, it's driven me completely around the bend.

[Dev]

I've noticed that gyms here like to use 70's disco music and play it at triple speed and very loud.

At my gym they have several TVs and they're all playing at high volume. If I am alone in that part of the gym, I turn down the volume on them. Personally, I hate the idea of TVs in the gym. They can only relax you and take the intensity and focus away from your workout.

I don't know, but I guess Koreans think that loud music helps their workouts.

[Omkara]

If you bring your own music, it is over-powered.

I guess they assume that everybody will like the same thing. The music should be in the background. They should take into account that not everyone will enjoy it and so put it at a level that allows others to enjoy the environment.

Such places cannot be called health clubs. These places are to get skinny and buff, but that hasn't much to do with health. Being strong or skinny doesn't mean you're healthy. So, it goes to show that there is a problem with the health industry here insofar as the music expresses their general paradigm.

The music isn't healthy. There is a very important relationship between the sounds we absorb and our health. It is rare that anyone makes a connection between sound and health. Yet, you can go back thousands of years in literature and find that there is importance placed on the kind of music we take in, in relation to our psychological health. Aside of the literature, it can be experienced. Anyone who chooses his or her music carefully will notice how it affects psychology and hence health.

But people again do not connect the health of the body with psychology at all.

To modify the old saying, health is not skin deep.