Korean Job Discussion Forums

[red_devil]

I recently read an article talking about how Seoul has much higher than normal noise pollution, and certainly after living in Korea a while it's been increasing every year. If i knew who my local representative was i'd send them a letter telling them it's getting out of hand...i mean it could be even little things that would make a big difference such as banning those trucks going around blaring their loudspeakers and bullhorns. Thoughts?

[MMagidson]

[Goon-Yang]

They'll get on the banana trucks right after they close down the double pole barbershops (illegal) the red light districts (illegal) and those crazy-azz mofos driving on the sidewalks.

Just deal with it OP. It sucks, but it's Korea. Get some earplugs or something.

[UknowsI]

I have one of those banana trucks with a speaker system stopping in front my apartment every Sunday morning... anyway, I heard they made it illegal to yell in the supermarkets in some part of China. When I visited China I found everything louder than in Korea except for the supermarkets which had no yelling staff telling me about the cheap samgyupsal prices.

[fermentation]

[Rusty Shackleford]

[crossmr]

I find that once you get off the main road, the noise drops significantly. I used to live in the downtown core of a 1 million pop city on the 22nd floor.

in the winter when you kept the windows closed to stay warm, it was pretty quiet except for motorbikes, sirens and light rail transit, and the occasional idiot screaming off their balcony.

In the summer it was pretty bad. no air con so windows always open. Even 22 floors up you could hear skateboarders, people talking loudly, etc.

I could compare the place I'm at now to there. I'm closer to the road as I'm only on the second floor, but not right beside the road, I'm a row of buildings back. is it noisier? not really.. unless I'm sitting here with everything off and the windows wide open. Traffic is comparable, the sirens are quieter in korea, and the subway goes underground here.

not many skateboarders. The odd person screaming, but I'd say its less. There I had to contend with the proximity of bars and frat boys (or guys who still thought they were frat boys). There are no significant bars here, and at least around here I find the random screaming from young adults to be less than back home.

but if I'm going to the store and back up even another row of houses its very quiet. All these buildings close together create a nice sound barrier that eats up a lot of noise quickly. Doesn't do much for the blue trucks..but my street is too narrow for one of those.. if you want peace and quiet it is possible you just need to be very particular and plan out the location.

go back at least a couple rows from the main road, check the size of the road, look for nearby bars/noraebangs etc

[fermentation]

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

I noticed a large plaza at Gangnam Finance Centre with a fountain so went there to read a book as I waited for my wife to finish her interview. The fountain will cover the street noise-brilliant. Go to sit down...is there a concert..?? They're playing piped, looped music. Grrr, I'll have a pint instead.

It's the same wine in a different bottle everywhere.

Youido Park-KPop.

Tranquil mountain retreat-KTrot.

Wife's aunts Trout restaurant out back of beyond-KEasyListening.

Go to the top of a mountain-they scream, buy a new phone-you turn the speaker up, you got a complaint-you shout, got some crappy product to sell-get a couple of slappers and stick the PA on.

Nothing a good flogging wouldn't fix

[AltF4]

[fermentation]

[Bueongi]

I wish the fruit trucks with the loudspeakers were the biggest annoyance for me. I live in an apartment building adjacent to some late-night barbeque joints. Even though I'm on the 12th floor, I can hear what's going on in the street as if it was in the next room. On nights that it's cool enough not to use the AC, I sleep with the windows open. I hear at least one violent drunken fight per night- bottles breaking, women screaming, ajosshis in a drunken rage jump-kicking each other and wrestling around on the ground. The fights will continue for like 30 minutes at a time. Sometimes I just lie in bed listening to people wailing and fighting each other and think, "I am in hell. This is hell on earth." My husband sometimes calls the police, and they'll send someone over to drive by, maybe talk to to the guy for a couple of minutes, but they always drive away without doing anything- even when the drunk man runs after them shouting insults.

The other night I was jarred awake at 3am by the loudest, most irritating sound yet. It turned out that someone had parked behind a delivery truck, blocking him in, so he decided to lay on the horn and wake up the entire building until the man came down to move his car. He could have easily gone to the security personnel and asked them to phone the owner of the vehicle, but he chose to be a dick about it and wake up everyone. I finally screamed down at him to shut up and flipped him off. Not a smart reaction, I know, but it was three in the morning and I was still half asleep and very pissed off. Ajosshis here are inconsiderate and loud just because, as kings of their world, they can be.

[crossmr]