Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nautilus]

My theory is that being a mountainous country, Koreans had to develop loud voices to shout to eachother from hilltop to hilltop before handpones were invented.

Plausible, no?

[Summer Wine]

More plausible is that it has to do with its easier yelling across a rice paddy than it is walking through it to say hi.

[Underwaterbob]

My theory is that we mostly work in schools and that students and teachers are generally loudmouths.

[Senior]

Every time I go out with my foreign buddies, I get nervous and uncomfortable with the loudness of their voices. Especially in restaurants.

Koreans tend to have places to be loud, and places to be noisy. There are way more noisy places than loud, of course, but it is obvious when you are in a quiet place. Many foreigners don't seem to be able to pick up on that vibe.

On a side note, I hate it when foreigners make inappropriate jokes, thinking those around them can't understand.

[VanIslander]

[Bloopity Bloop]

[AsiaESLbound]

I wouldn't say they are louder, but they can be pretty darned farking obnoxiously loud. I had an unpleasant round today with my 6th graders being rude and screaming everything at the top of their lungs just because they are PO'd over having to sit in exams all day and then expected to go to English class for the last period. Well, there was something more going on that I didn't know about as to why they were so PO'd to the point of screaming in retaliation and provocation. They all said they did really bad on the test and acted so miserable like it was the hopeless end of the world. I didn't come all this way to be your obagwon punching machine so if you keep yelling and screaming at me, you are either going out to your homeroom teacher or I'm going to take a seat in front of you and stare at you for 30 more minutes. They are so miserably unhappy yet tomorrow is a holiday. What's there to yell about?

[8 years down]

Kids are loud everywhere. No big deal.

Listening to a businessman shouting at his cellphone on the bus is a bit mind-boggling though. Not sure why everyone on the bus needs to hear the details of his conversation.

[oskinny1]

[nautilus]

[nautilus]

[Von Ludwig]

Interesting theories so far.
However I think it is simply a matter of working and living in highly populated (and therefore very noisy) cities. People here have been conditioned to speak loudly from an early age in the constant fight against background noise or someone louder than themselves.

[schwa]

All this talk about "they."

I know plenty of soft-spoken Koreans. I've also met a good number of loud-spoken westerners, which doesnt make them all the same either.

[eamo]

[Globutron]