Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dev]

Korea is not unique in having noise polution, but there seems to be a lot of it. Just curious, what kinds of noises get on your nerves the most? Fruit truck speakers at 8 am? Loud cell phone users? Booming Korean pop music coming out of cheap speakers in shopping areas?

For me, it's my neighbors and their remote control car locks. I don't know why I never noticed this at home. Maybe it's because I never lived above a parking lot. I live in one of those villa apartments on the 1st floor. On the ground floor under me, is a parking lot that the whole neighborhood seems to use. I hear that stupid chirping sound countless time throughout the day as my neighbors lock and unlock their cars. Man! I wish the people who invented those remote control car locks put a vibrator in the remotes like cell phones have. I think initially those remote controls only came with luxury cars, so if you had one, you were proud to show it off. Now, even bottom of the line cars have them and those remote controls are just an annoyance.

[periwinkle]

I don't like it when people allow their dogs to bark their heads off. Sure, it happens back home, too, but this is what really gets on my nerves (the neighbors across the hall have 2 shih tzus and I never hear the neighbors tell them to knock it off. I'm surprised the barking doesn't bother them, though). Thank God for earplugs!

[kermo]

Most days it's the CCCCCHHHHCCCCCHHHH of someone winding up to hock a loogie onto the sidewalk. That one just doesn't sweeten with time.

Lately, it's a cuckoo bird outside my office window, ceaselessly, tunelessly, sounding his barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.

[SPINOZA]

The totally unnecessary and prolonged use of the car horn.

[flotsam]

Eating.

Or the sound of one of my co-workers saying: "어, 추워!" and then shiveringly shutting the window and turning off the fan in 30 degree weather with 90% humidity.

Note: We haven't gone to the AC yet, and I think that's pretty damn big of me. Pretty damn so.

[inspector gadget]

Without a doubt the one that gets me is on TV, the infomercials, while they try and sell things, the constant "bling" sound that you hear about every three seconds or so.

I can't stand that sound

[Sleepy in Seoul]

The sound of snapping gum and constant open-mouthed chewing.

[annabel]

Open- mouthed chewing has always been my pet peeve; back home, gum was the worst, and here for some reason the sound of someone chewing 'ttok' especially gets on my nerves... it just seems to make the loudest squishing sounds... ugh. Oh, and slurping gets me too.

[Dev]

A close 2nd for me would be hearing other people's cheesy ringtones on the cell phones (at full volume of course) in confined places like trains & buses. What do these ringtones do? Show off a person's personal bad taste?

I wish all phones just had a regular ring. They would be less distracting and easier to ignore.

[laogaiguk]

[Alan Partidge]

[quote="Sleepy in Seoul"]The sound of snapping gum and constant open-mouthed chewing.[/quote]

I agree. Although I realise in the grand scheme of things it's a pretty trivial thing, it still drives me crazy. The ajummas sitting on the subway clicking away on their gum almost makes me change cars.
BTW Sleepy do you think we'll beat the Wallabies next weekend?

[heydelores]

The Numa Numa song. I can't figure out if it's coming from a neighbor with open windows or from a shop down on the street, but I hear it several times a day!

[Demophobe]

Cicadas. That sounds makes me nuts.

[seoulsucker]

For me it's the traditional Korean horn that's played during ceremonies, drum circles, etc.

[cdninkorea]

Almost all of the above (the only ones that don't bother me would if I heard them more often).