Korean Job Discussion Forums

[taobenli]

I live in an actual apartment building now (not a one-room). There is a speaker on the wall above the intercom to see who's at the door. I find it super annoying and Orwellian when announcements are randomly given over this speaker. It's not all that often, but often enough. Sometimes the announcements are for recycling rules or reminders to pay the apt. management fee, but other times they're announcements for specials on pizza (wtf?) which I could really do without. Is there a way to disable this box? Can I just unscrew the grate and take something out inside?

[Palladium]

I had the same problem in my apartment. Super loud and came on early in the morning, really pissed me off. So, I unscrewed it, opened it up, severed one of the wires leading into the speaker at the soldier joint. Put the screws back on and no more annoying speaker noise.

Make sure when you disconnect the wire you do it carefully so they can easily soldier it back on, tho. So the next tenants can have the annoyance if they so desire.

[lost at sea]

[sofaking]

I put a screwdriver through the plastic cover and shredded the inner cardboard cone.

Problem fixed!!!
Quicker than removing the wire.

[djsmnc]

I opened the cover and stuffed a bunch of paper/cotton/tissues in, which competely muffled the sound to a barely audible level.

[bluelake]

[8 years down]

My wife put some thick boxing tape over them. (we have one in each bathroom as well ffs...) It completely blocked out the sound.

I should note she only did this after she caught me up on a chair unscrewing the cover and prepared to rip a few wires out. Those things are just ridiculous, and she can't understand why I hate them so much.

[exit86]

Good suggestion about cutting/unsoldering the wire so that it can be re-fixed--as if it was somehow broken by nature. I haven't "fixed" my stupid intercom out of fear that the thought-police might come and take me away in a helicopter. I'm gonna take care of that puppy first thing tomorrow when the wife goes to work.
Yeah, they freak me out too. Today, they announced a sale in the parking lot on sink fixtures. Gimme a break! Sometimes I forget if I'm living in North or South Korea.

[Troglodyte]

My apartment has one of those speakers as well. I've been wondering what the announcements were about. Mine already has masking tape over it but i figured that was to stop a draft from coming in. It definitely doesn't muffle the sound. But mine only announces something once every few days (in the afternoon) so i've never been bothered to disable it.

[itaewonguy]

when I first experienced that I wanted to kill it right away... but my wife said NO. sometimes they annouce things which might be useful..
I was LIKE nothing is useful at 9am when I am sleeping, or some ajossis voice coming on the speaker during my movie in a climax scene!!!

anyway, we still have it.. its not that bad anymore..

[ChilgokBlackHole]

You're going to have to do more than just pummel the speaker. You need to plug the hole. There's conduit running from your apartment to the apartment below, and from the apartment above to yours. take off the cover and pack that thing full of whatever you've got. Then screw it back on.

[Ukon]

My co-teacher says ajummas love it and use it for apartment news.

[bluelake]

[blow into microphone two or three times]

"Ah... ah... test, test... ah... ah... This is an informational message. [insert some message here] Let me repeat the message [re-insert message here]."

It used to irk me, especially as the messages usually came at the least opportune times and I had no interest in them. Where I am now, we have no speakers in the apartment, but there is a neighborhood address system that announces this or that once in a while (occasionally at a time when I would prefer to still be sleeping).

[Mr. Pink]

[RufusW]