Korean Job Discussion Forums

[robt.stokebailey]

I'm currently looking into the Korean job market, but I'm night-noise intolerant. Insect noise is no problem for me, but insensitive human-made noise made in the wee hours of the night, such as the buzzing of motor scooters or night owl neighbors operating a noise-making side business, will get me riled. Having recently heard someone describing his experience with noise pollution in Jakarta, Indonesia, I wondered if this might be true of Korean urban areas as well.

I'd appreciate it if someone can fill me in on what to expect in a typical Korean urban environment and how different it might be from a typical suburban neighborhood in the the U.S.

[denverdeath]

[jvalmer]

Unless you're in a really rural area, it will be much louder than your typical suburb.

[amcnutt]

Well yeah, if you're living in Seoul or any other large city in Korea it's going to be noisy at all hours of the day - and night.
My suggestion is getting a comfortable pair of earplugs (like the wax-type ones that mold into your ear canal). I hated wearing them at first, but now they are comfortable and block out a lot of noise.
Now I can't sleep without them, in a good way

[curiousaboutkorea]

Summer can be bad. If you're near even just one bar (which are everywhere, of course) you'll get drunk ajeossi screaming and shouting into the wee hours, despite it being an obviously largely residential area.

[jrwhite82]

No matter what country you live in, if you are in an urban area you will have noise. That being said, the windows in most apartments I have stayed in or my friends lived in were single pane glass. So the noise doesn't really get filtered too well.

[air76]

I live in a TINY town and it is the 2nd loudest place I have ever lived....downtown Ho Chi Minh City was horrible, absolutely horrible for noise, to the point that it drove us insane and was one of the main reasons why we left, but HCMC's noise was on a whole other level.

The place I lived before this wasn't so bad, but it was still 10 times noisier than a town of similar size in the US and you still had to put up with banging and clanging in neighboring apartments and screaming matches at 4-6 am when ajoshis came home drunk and fought with their wives.

If you live on the 10th floor of an apartment building in a large development then the noise will be tolerable, but if you live in a villa (3 story apartments) near a bar then the noise will be completely intolerable. This is my situation, but with around 10 bars within a block.

Last night there was a group of grown men playing rock-scissors-paper for about an hour from 2-3am....I'd hear "kai, bai, bok!" from the men and then raucous screams from 3 women as they cheered on their favorite competitor. They literally did this for an hour. I don't think it was a drinking game because they sounded to be in their 40s, and the kai, bai, bok was so continuous that they didn't seem to be stopped between matches.

The thing is that you'll have no control whatsoever over where your apartment is, so if you decide to come over, even if you went to a smaller town you could pretty much count on the noise being a serious concern, especially in the summer.

[matthews_world]

A lot of it's due to the population density. 48,000,000 packed into an area the size of Utah.

This is one reason why I coming back to live in another rural area.

Another idea, bring an mp3 with you and a good set of earphones but careful when you're trying to cross the street.

[DrugstoreCowgirl]

I live across the street from about 8 bar/restaurants and a noraebang. Friday and Saturday nights are loud. Even during the week you'll hear guys screaming at each other outside. Delivery trucks come at like 3-4 am and leave the engine on the whole time they've parked in the street.

I used to wake up a lot during the night but now I sleep with earplugs and I never notice the noise.