Korean Job Discussion Forums

[marlow]

My downstairs neighbors are complaining there is too much noise from my apartment--thumping, etc. I have two young boys, one just walking this fall. They play and stuff, but nothing that isn't normal for kids. They aren't doing WWE basketball or anything.

Are my neighbors hyper-sensitive, is the apartment (standard concrete building) shoddy, or are my kids and I rude?

Anyone ever live under kids? My previous downstairs neighbors must have been tolerant, parents of many kids, or deaf. These current folks are childless.

Can't wait to live in a detached house in Canada.

[aphase]

i live under a family with 2 kids. THey are really noisy, especially on saturday mornings, all kinds of thumping and crying going on, and its pretty loud. I've gotten used to it tho and that kind of thing doesn't really bother me.

[Hanson]

We got these mats that piece together like puzzle pieces, and they seem to really do a decent job of muting my daughter's frequent stomping. We've got these mats covering the livingroom floor. They're cheap, too.

[sojourner1]

I'm living under kids. It's a lot thumpety thump thump in my ceiling, but I don't complain and used to it. Kids are a part of life and listening to the neighbors kids in apartment blocks in a common occurrence most don't complain about. I just hate it when adults are talking loudly until 2 in the morning or whenever I zonk out. They thump thump well into the night every night too as they're just too hyper to go to bed at a reasonable hour and then the man leaves around 1 or 2 AM and returns around 7AM so they're only quite for about 5 hours. I think he works nights and sleeps in the daytime as I see the mother carting the kids off at 8:30 every morning. It's quiet during the day, but noisy at night. They have a baby and one 2 year old looking toddler with a mailbox full of credit card stuff and a big silver SUV in the driveway. I just try to stay out of their way and hope they don't cause me trouble like my neighbors I had last year always tried to by complaining that I was too noisy and not doing my trash right when I was not causing trouble or being unreasonable.

They just don't want you around nor personally like you, because Koreans are used to lots of constant noise 24/7 and are used to inconsiderate neighbors not to say you're inconsiderate, but in Asia neighbors don't care about each other. I doubt if you're the one burning trash, honking your horn late, jumping in and out of your car at all hours, and getting loud with late night soju soaked in house gambling parties. Like everywhere you go, there's always someone who doesn't like you and wants to challenge you for unknown reasons. In America, bad neighbors will use the police as a weapon in attempt to run you off.

You might get a Korean involved to mediate the situation with the landlord and the neighbors. If the neighbors still complain, basically tell them to stuff it and STFU. If someone doesn't like living around kids, then they should go find a place specifically requesting there be no kids allowed as some places don't rent to people with kids and dogs. Kids are a part of life and it's not reasonable to expect them to stay sitting and quiet at all times, because it simply doesn't work like that 100% o the time in any situation involving kids.

[Panda]

Oh.....I got 3 little girls living upstairs...

On weekends, some are chasing around, some are crying, some are playing the piano, never mention the piano, it always starts with " Twinkle Twinkle Little Star " and ends with some improvised "Thunder Variation"

I love kids and would never get freaked out by any.

On the other hands, the lady downstairs used to complain a lot I played loud music on weekends, I thus had to cut my music off although I love my stereo

[princess]

They are probably complaining just because you are a foreigner. Sometimes, it seems that whatever Koreans do, it is OK. If a foreigner in the building makes noise, they will get complaints. I actually know a foreigner who got kicked out of her place because neighbors complained about her barking dog. Geez. I hear my neighbor's dog barking sometimes and I don't see them getting kicked out. She had to deal with the stress of moving in the cold weather and finding a new place. Then, the dog got complaints again, and she finally had to go and have the poor dog's voice box cut out. Now, the poor dog can't even bark. Pretty twisted in my opinion. Koreans at work actually encouraged her to have this surgery done on her dog to avoid being kicked out of another place. I am telling you...Koreans at work are a whole different kind of human being.

[Cheonmunka]

I purposely chose the sanga building above a pc room and other stores and a restaurant below that for our place for the sole purpose of letting the kids go krazy. And krazy they go. I also crank up my amp occasionally - no prob. Nothing anyone can say about it , it's a commercial building on a main street with noisy as f... patrons on the roadside and in the restaurants anyway.
PS: Were asked/requested to leave our previous place on account that the kids were too noisy. Not sure though, the new owner wanted the place for his daughter to move into, you see.

[Typhoon]

Kids make noise. There is not much that can be done. People should understand this. However, if it is early in the morning (before 7 or 7:30) or after a reasonable bed time (after 10ish) then a complaint may be justified. It is tough to get kids to quiet down (all parents know this), but thinking about your neighbors is a good idea (even if most Koreans don't). If your kids are just making noise during the day I would tell your neighbor to get a grip or move to a house.

[shaunew]

I'm having the same problem. Some new people moved downstairs from me. My son plays a lot and the new ajumma bitches to the security guard. He is on my side, I bring him coffee or other treats he is uber cool.

Anyway she has been to my house 3 times the first time, we were having our Kitchen and bathroom remodeled and she came up and bitched to the workers. She walked right in and after 25 seconds I physically removed her from my house by pushing her out the front door.

I think she is taking it to the security guard now because I'm white and she thinks I can not communicate in Korean. Next time she comes up my wife is going to bitch her out. Can not wait for it.

P.S. Sorry if this makes no sense I'm on my holidays and on my 5th Stella Artois.

[Horangi Munshin]

We have two daughters, but live on the first floor so no worries about thumping. No complaints so far.

There is a family with two school aged boys across the hall. The older one and his mates often play with their damn metal tops, they keep banging against our door and have woken up my daughter in the past.

Needless to say. My wife rushes out before I get to door to sort them out. I think she's too polite!

[GreenlightmeansGO]

The people above me make some fcked up noises. Almost every single morning/early afternoon I hear this thumping coming from above me. I can't work out what it is. It comes in sets of three, normally: BOOM...BOOM...BOOM! I'm wondering if someone is lifting weights or something, but why the rhythm? It's like the person is bashing something on the floor...could they be making food of some sort, where crushing is the method? But still...why the sets of 3?

AAARRRGGGHHHHH!!!! My neighbourhood is pretty noisy, in strange ways. Often my building and windows shake like a bomb has just exploded in the vicinity.

[theholyinnocent]

I don't have kids but I have kids visit sometimes.

Two things that have helped me with noisiness in general are:

1) Rugs. I prefer not to have a rug in my dining area but I have a squishy play mat thing that I drag out when kids come over and bang their fucking toys on the floor, which is apparently the main draw of every single toy ever created. My parents have those puzzle-piece mats in their laundry room and I want to get a few for my apartment, because that way I can take them apart and store them easily when the kids leave. The mats are kind of rubbery so they're good for spilling things on, too.

2) Layout. Obviously your apartment is your own, and you can lay it out however you want. But I never realized what a difference it can make until I moved in with my boyfriend. Before I moved in, his bedroom was half of the living room that he and his roommate had sectioned off with a sliding door. Afterwards, we both shared the main bedroom. I always thought that the upstairs neighbor was just an insensitive *beep* who played ear-splittingly loud music at 3am, because whenever I slept over I couldn't sleep through the thudding bass techno beat, but I can't hear a note of it from back in the main bedroom. And I kind of realized, "Hey, yeah, you know, I was sleeping directly under the place where all his entertainment stuff is likely gathered."

Ever since then I've given more thought to the "natural structure" of my apartment, and tried to follow it, just so my noise-making areas tend to be centered around my neighbors' similar areas. I also shuffle kids' play activities around sometimes based on this. Morning and evening play in the living/dining area, and then maybe bed-jumping or Barbie world in the bedroom during the afternoon -- so that the kids are probably playing in the parts of the apartments that my neighbors are farther from at any given time. I don't go crazy with it because god knows it's not worth it, but it is something that I've found makes a difference in how sensitive I am to the noise of others so I figure that whenever possible I'll try to be sensitive to the quiet-time needs of others.

Basically my two biggest efforts go into: confining evening/morning noisy play to the living area of the apartment, and directing most play into playmat-buffered areas. It's still a losing battle but I feel like the small things must make some difference.

It sounds like your neighbors are being a pain in the ass. Yeah, neighbor noise can suck, but I view most kid-related noise to be more like street-traffic sounds or car alarms: you can't do anything about it except move to a place where there are no cars/kids/whatever.

[bm2008]

There's some truth in most of the comments here. Probably getting the mats someone suggested to mute the sound of your kids running, and thinking about the layout of your place as someone else suggested are the best things you can do. Wonder if the neighbours who are complaining have any other reasonable suggestions?

The root cause though is that the design and construction of buildings here leaves a lot to be desired. In my opinion, modern residential buildings should be able to handle normal human activity and normal levels of noise in such a way that others are not disturbed by it (by, for example, the use of soundproofing materials). I've had families with kids living above me in other countries and I honestly could never hear a thing. Here the relentless thump of footsteps on concrete seems to be a fact of apartment living even in the most expensive and exclusive developments, whether there are kids around or not. I really don't get it - I know I would not be happy if I spent my entire life savings on a brand new luxury apartment only to find I could not get to sleep until 2 in the morning because I could hear the neighbours every time they walk across the floor. However (most) people seem to just put up with it here...

[Countrygirl]

Toddlers are the loudest. They don't really walk, they run everywhere. And they love to jump off of things like couches and chairs. We lived under a toddler in a wood frame building..that was loud.

But to answer your question, yes, your neighbours are probably a little sensive. In a concrete building it will be loud but not unbearable. Get the plastic mats and show that you are doing your best. Try to keep the kids quieter in the evenings (ie no jumping off of things). This is reasonable.

Funny story... Korean friend of mine told us his story with his adjuma neighbour who also kept complaining about his kids making too much noise. She would always come up to complain and he would always argue back with her. Then one day she came while he was in the shower. So he went to the door in the full Monty to deal with her complaint. True adjuma that she was, she didn't blink an eye.

[Typhoon]