Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Loudog]

Does everyone else get periodic messages from the collective? It seems like every day in my apartment, sometimes several times a day, a melody followed by a female voice broadcasts a short message from a speaker in the wall. Is it only in my town? If not, does anyone know what they are saying?
It did not bother me at first, but after living her a while, I am starting to get paranoid. Maybe its because I live in a small town, but people here will stop whatever they are doing just to watch me walk down the street. Almost every day people in cars while staring at me waiting at the crosswalk will sit through a green light and get honked at before they drive off.
It seems to be too much of a coincidence that the messages seem to play whenever I get home from work, or after I come back from shopping or exploring. Every day I feel, more and more like those messages just maybe could be about me, like the collective is reporting on my activities...
"Today the foreigner purchased the following Items..."
Or perhaps a warning...
"The foreigner has returned to his assigned dwelling, it is now safe to let your children out to play..."
Maybe I am just paranoid, but that doesn't mean they are not watching me.

[Xuanzang]

Resistance is futile.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[OculisOrbis]

get a screwdriver and some wire cutters and then the voices will not bother you anymore.

[definitely maybe]

[djsmnc]

Lou! We've been waiting for you. You must announce your presence. We know you have the mark.

[sqrlnutz123]

Actually, all the messages, everywhere, relate completely and soley to me and my activites, as I am far more interesting and pertinent than any of you are.

[crossmr]

I know another poster here who would be a great friend for you if he wasn't so paranoid about speaking English to people..

[samd]

[DorkothyParker]

I for one can't think of a more simple explanation. Occam's razor. I'd say your best bet would be to try to learn Korean, but it's probably in some weird code or Navajo or something anyway.

Try a tin foil hat.

[bixlerscott]

It's your mind converting illegible voice sounds into speech off of your thoughts base on experiences or figments of your imagination. Despite not understanding what all they are saying, you know what they are thinking, because they too are human and you naturally understand people after many years of experience with this, but minds do play tricks, often based on what you know. Many months of isolation can get very wierd as if you are on a long journey to planet K. Even for introverts, there is such a thing as too much lonelyness such as I experienced. You will talk to yourself and even think you heard people talking in English and Korean speaking you know. About you. Who else?

Have you ever been around hundreds of people, can't make out what anyone is saying, and then think you hear people saying things that are exactly whatever it is you are thinking about or expect them to say, but know you can't have possibly heard it said in such a noisy place? You might be watching a show, hear voices behind you you can't make out, and then think you heard, "this is the best show I've seen," simply because you are thinking it's the best show in a long time. Or you might be walking down KSR in Bangkok and think you heard, "Wow, dude, this is the coolest place in the world," because you think this. Or you are walking in a Korean city and think you heard, "Wow, it's a foreigner just like on TV. Is that an American?" Yes, I heard meegook and other things a lot so they do discuss a great deal about us when they see us out of interest, but usually don't mean any harm though feel insecure. I met Koreans who had never seen a foreigner before in real life and just stared in disbelief, but didn't hate on me. It was just awkward and yes it's surreal.

Yes, I noticed they do excessively watch and study my buying, walking, and other behaviors closely and talk a lot about these sorts of things and even speculate most of what they are saying rather than opening up to interact with you to get the facts. It's an annoying fact of international work and travel, especially in such a land like Korea that is only beginning to open up, culturally speaking. We are not talking about materialism here. Yes, it is factual they do talk about what OP thinks is being said in OP's walls as funny as that sounds, but I'd hope there isn't a speaker in the wall. LOL

One time, I was in Emart buying ground beef and the Korean salary man in a shiny suit who spoke very good English in front of me said, "I did not think foreigners ate bulgogi, I thought only Koreans ate like that." I told him it was a Western idea for making sandwiches and things like spaghetti. He was opened up to a new reality that day to be told the truth that it's not only a Korean thing. People really do not know these sorts of things and they do watch and talk with a bias perspective based on how and what they are taught even though it's usually false or skewed. They are gullable enough to think ice cream and pizza are exclusively Korean specialty foods and are Korean inventions. It surprised me at first to clearly see that masses of people are misled to think you are comparable to a movie star and everything thing in Korea is a Korean invention leading them to excessively talk nonsense I know is not true or shouldn't be said.

You are hearing voices talking about you, because you are, in public that is, but highly unlikely in your walls. This is your mind playing tricks with a replay of what you experience in public and feel concious about. Our human minds play tricks, especially in strange alien environments or entirely new situations. It's awkward being a square peg in a round hole.

[bassexpander]

Ours are an automated voice reminding us to take out the trash, etc..