Korean Job Discussion Forums

[uberscheisse]

i rarely see posts about this subject. my friend posted on his blog about people with car alarms in seattle and it made me think of the fruit/rice/fish/computer seller trucks with cheapass loudspeakers on top.

you know, the guys who park under your window at 8am on a sunday with the same distorted-as-all-get-out and repeated-800-times-a-minute
message about whatever product is being sold from the back of their bongo?

usually a quick "ajushi, jo yong hae, jusayo" moves them along, but i can imagine there being real conflict between a grumpy, rudely-awakened foreigner and some dude just trying to make a living.

any stories? i'm not trolling, just curious.

[Grotto]

In the beautiful scenic clean aired town of Taebaek I was awoken one early morning (9:00 AM) to the blast of sound from one of these loudspeaker vans....I mean it sounded like the guy was yelling at me from about 2 feet away in my bedroom.

This van put the blue truck vegetable guys to shame...i've heard quieter rock concerts.

Anyway! Thinking that he would leave momentarily I tried to ignore it, drained my bladder and checked my email...just when I was about to snap it stopped and he drove away....ahh blissful silence...until he got to the other side of my apartment buildiing and started up again. I threw on some shorts and took the elevator down, jumped on my motorbike drove over to where he was parked and ripped the wires out of the loudspeaker.

He turned three shades of white as I dropped the wiring onto his lap.

The upside was that I could hear him off in the distance from time to time but he always bypassed our apartment complex after that

[matthews_world]

There's a classic thread here on Dave's about 6am vegetable trucks. I'd post if I could find it.

[desultude]

I don't understand the Asian acceptance, maybe embrace, of loud speakers. When I was in Ha Noi, the first place I stayed in (I moved that day!) had government loud speakers on the corner of the block. They blared at 6! A.M.

Down the hill from me, here in Daegu, there are competing vegetable trucks, church announcements, public announcements, and a little temple that has amplified chanting sometimes. I am just far enough away to be able to hear it, but its not too bad. But given the distance I am from the din, it must be god awful in the neighborhood.

I don't get it. Maybe that is why Koreans are not allowed to carry guns. . .

[paperbag princess]

i hate those trucks with a passion that burns deep into my being.
"buy my fish" "i have good fish" "fish is good" "yummy, yummy fish!!!"

[uberscheisse]

ahh, harvest time...

an appropriate time to bring up this thread again.

in the last 20 minutes, 7, i shit you not, SEVEN trucks have parked outside my window.

it's time to start pricing paintball equipment.

[just because]

Since I have live here I've had no problems with these trucks

Maybe I've been just lucky but never once have the trucks woke me up but I have lived on the 5th. floor for 2 years and now on the 9th. so that could have something to do with it.

To be honest, i like the trucks that deliver the fruit, makes it so much easier for me.

The thing I hate the most, apartment speakers!!!!

[manlyboy]

I've got you all beat. In Jakarta I lived next door to a mosque, where the loudspeaker for the daily prayers was aimed directly at my bedroom window. Deafening praise to Allah five times a day starting at around 5 am! I would literally wake with a jolt every morning. Drove me mind-numbingly close to a psychotic episode, but I'm fine now. Honestly, I am. Really.

If you need me I'll be in the corner kicking the cat.

[agraham]

I don't get it. Are foreigners the only ones who don't mind being woken up at 8 in the morning? And what's with drunken people standing in the street singing for twenty minutes at 3 am? Or people honking for thier friends over and over and over?
I'm not saying this stuff doesn't happen in downtown Vancouver. All the time.. But it usually doesn't take long for someone to stick thier head out a window and yell "shut the *beep* up!"
Here, nobody seems to care except us wayguks.

[eamo]

[agraham]

[eamo]