Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Julius]

I used to think Americans were loud, lets say around 10 decibels. Then I noticed African Americans seemed to speak a couple of decibels higher. Irish folks tend to talk in quite a loud manner too i thought. Met a few Norwegians who's standard speech maybe rattled the windows.

But nothing really prepared me for 50-decibel Koreans.

The average korean has a voice like a foghorn!. I stood up on the mountains surrounding my town- you could hear the conversations of the people in their houses from literally over a mile distant, carrying up the mountainsides. An ordinary conversation, sounding like what would be a heated argument in the west. Not a discussion, but sounding more like a shouting match.
Walking down the street I happened to pass some ajosshi who decided to speak to his friend not even 2 feet away. Birds fell off telegraph wires nearby! He sounded like a tannoy. He could have been heard from space.

Is it some sort of ploy to scare the Chinese away from invading again?

[Kwangjuchicken]

[Dome Vans]

This is easily summed up by the supermarket fish guys shouting into their microphones trying to sell something. I f*cking hate it. More so for the fact that the sound systems are just so bad. If they just turned them down a tad, I might be able to hear what he's saying. And take some of the treble off.

=

It's only audible to Koreans at that volume, and they probably think he's whispering.

Ergo

Thread answer, YES!

[RACETRAITOR]

Strangest complaint ever.

[xtchr]

[RACETRAITOR]

It's the first thing I notice whenever I see groups of foreigners here.

[makemischief]

no.

ride on a bus in brazil for 40 hours and have the people behind you "talk" to each other in voices loud enough to wake the dead (one of my favorite countries...but WOW).

[princess]

Yes, go to a bar and listen to the ugly voices of some of the Korean girls. Loud and ugly...worse than some western women.

[makemischief]

[Smee]

[princess]

[Wangja]

No.

Whilst Koreans can indeed be loud, they are as nothing when compared with the 4 Americans on the train I took in Germany the other day.

My German colleague told me that locally the nickname for Americans is "chewing-gums".

[oldfatfarang]

Americans have an international reputation for being 'loud' when in groups and overseas. I hear them a lot in Itaewon - and, yes, they are loud. That said, Australasians can be annoyingly loud in groups, too.

I read complaints about Koreans being unhappy with foreigners speaking English on buses and on the subway etc. But I think it's not English speaking per se - but the speaker's volume. Speaking loudly is considered rude and uncultured in many Asian cultures - and, interestingly, in my culture too.

[mj roach]

ever been to China?

[thatwhitegirl]