Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Justin Hale]

Brief summary: It all started about a month ago. The apartment immediately above me was making all sorts of thudding noises until 5am (it commenced about 2am). It was Sunday night. I concluded that it must've been someone or some people arriving home from a night on the tiles. I got a bad night's sleep, even though I always wear earplugs to sleep, but lived and let live. Sadly, earplugs, whilst excellent at drowning out many noises, do little to reduce the volume of low-pitched thuds.

Recently, it's got steadily worse and I now fear I will not have a good night's sleep for the rest of my days in Korea, which are 66% of a year. Throughout the day, someone walks around the apartment with the loudest footsteps I've ever heard, like an elephant. That alone is dreadfully irritating because I have a uniquely powerful aversion to irritating noises. I know, it's not the country for me. But the noises into the small hours continue also, meaning I'm deprived of sleep on several recent occasions. When I was a child, if I was denied sleep, I became a Mr Hyde-like fiend and this continues into adulthood. I can see no reason at all why someone should need to walk around so often in a relatively small apartment and so loudly or what the justification for intermittent THUDS could be. Last night, woken up by a THUD, I banged hard on my ceiling (hurting my hand in the process) up to 10 times and the noises stopped, but it was 4am and may have stopped anyway.

Solution: I've written a very polite note in Korean (here it is: 죄송합니다만 부탁 드리겠습니다. 밤에 걸어 다니는 소리가 크게 들려서 잠을 잘 수 없습니다. 배려해 주시면 감사하겠습니다) which I shall stick on their front door. If the noises continue and my sanity deteriorates, I'll resort to more drastic measures, such as middle of the night visits.

There's a small twist: this definitely appears a place of work and not residence, although of course could be both. Outside the door, the sign says "Skylife [in English] school materials study and training room [in Korean]".

There's a poll and I welcome any comments.

[nomad-ish]

not much noise around my place... in fact, i fear i'm the one making most of it

[skeeterses]

This is one of those times where you definately have to know your Korean. Over the past few years at my apartment, I've had different neighbors live next door and they've always had the tendency to either be noisy at 1:00 AM, keeping me awake till 2 or 3 AM, or be noisy at 6:00 AM waking me up early as well.

The only thing you can do is knock on the doors when the neighbors are too noisy and write a letter to your landlord if the neighbors don't settle down.

[fortysixyou]

[waynehead]

I have a neighbor above me who I've nicknamed "leadfoot." Leadfoot seems to go to sleep every night at 2AM, but before s/he turns in s/he does a little jig next to his/her bed. Leadfoot then rises 4 hours later, like clockwork, resumes his/her jig, and then eventually goes about his/her bizness.

It's annoying, but it's not really too bad...it never wakes me up, it just keeps me awake if I happen to be conscious when it commences.

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

I too suffer from noisy neighbours who are constantly dropping heavy round objects onto their hardwood floor, and who have also recently acquired a baby from somewhere too. I figure that it will take only one or two more of their early wake-up calls for me to reach tipping point, after which I shall spend a leisurely afternoon bathing in their entrails before going off to start a new life as a dangerous fugitive.

[rationality]

[spliff]

Not a peep, anyhow, couldn't hear it over the Dead and Dylan tonight. Seriously, my building never any noise, I live on the top of 4 flrs.... I rarely see any of the buildings other occupants......

[JamesFord]

I haven't had a good night's sleep in 6 years. I have the worst luck in that everywhere I move, there ends up being noisy neighbors. I'm also the kind of guy who when I go to a restaurant, within minutes of sitting down a family with terribly behaved children comes and sits down at a table next to me. A black cloud/rain seems to follow me around everywhere I go as well.......even indoors!

[rationality]

[Vicissitude]

[chris_J2]

I had major problems in Gyeongido, last year, between October & January, when I moved out into the school's dorm accomodation for 3 months. Only minor problems in Gyeongsangnamdo so far. An all too familiar scenario, including the lying.

On Sunday nights around 10pm, the upstairs neighbors would drag the low set Korean tables with inbuilt cookers across the floor, for a family get together, & again at midnight, putting them away. Additionally they had a 4-5 year old hyperactive boy who would run around the apartment incessantly jumping off tables onto the floor for 7 hours straight day after day. The a** hole Korean father had the gall to complain to my Principal when I thumped back on my ceiling, & yelled at them to shut up. He also lied, & said his little angel never made any noise, & the foreigner was crazy. He also blamed other neighbors even though I could clearly see the lights were not on in their apartments as I entered my apartment, & were on in his. The father even rushed into my apartment, when I opened the door, & picked up the fire extinguisher, & threatened to hit me with it. I called the police, but they hung up because they couldn't speak English.

Complaining to the Apartment Manager / Caretaker didn't do much good, in my case, either, as he sided with the Korean tenants. In hindsight, I would get one of your school's more imposing looking male Korean teachers, to come around with you, to the neighbors apartment, & warn them, that if the noise continues, you will personally visit the Police & lodge a formal written complaint. Try explaining first, that the kids of the school you work at, are depending on the native speaker to provide a quality English teaching program, & it's selfish of them to ignore this by keeping you awake on a regular basis.

[Justin Hale]

Many thanks for the responses.

Two posters have mentioned police and written complaints. That's something I'd be totally willing to do - or at least threaten to do. It's not something I thought about at all because my opinion of Korean law enforcement is entirely negative. Noise complaints are taken seriously then?

Last night I stuck the note (OP) on their door. I went back up 30 mins later and there was another note on the door (from them, to me). There's one bit I don't quite understand, but it seems cooperative and certainly polite.

Today however has been very noisy with the same old footsteps. I am a big guy and I know I do not make noise when I walk, so there is no reason at all for anybody to. It is an appalling habit that someone living in a high-rise apartment environment must learn to curb. However, although very annoying, I am prepared to let day stuff slide - it is at night and sleep that's my priority. Really though, I want a strict, total reduction in the noise because - as I said - I am violently averse to others' noise. I wear earplugs at school to drown out Korean teachers' cellphone noises and other misc noises. So, yes, I am unreasonable, but the noise at home would irritate anyone, I guarantee it. Importantly, newbies need to know that Korean people are very noisy and have less concern for the feelings of those they've never been formally introduced to than in the West. Noise pollution generally is the worst thing about Korea.

[chris_J2]

There's no soundproofing in most Korean Apartments, which compounds the problem. There also appears to be a local etiquette guide, that it is unseemly & improper, for a teacher to retaliate, & I got a "you're a teacher, you must endure", lecture, from my school. Incidentally, the Korean teacher I swapped places with, & who moved in, when I moved out, complained about the noise to me privately, & said he'd had nightmares about factory type noises. The school declined to renew the 12 month lease in October this year. My replacement commutes from a larger city by bus, each day.

[rationality]