Korean Job Discussion Forums

[coolsage]

The city fathers (or perhaps it was mothers in this case) decided in their dubious wisdom to rip out the last remaining green space, a mini-park as it were, in this neighborhood, and put up a basketball court. Now the scent of the trees is gone, replaced by the thump of basketballs, starting at 6AM, and sometimes going until 4AM (I assume it's different players). I haven't had a decent night's sleep for months. Presumably the locals have learned how to desensitize themselves to this sort of obtuse invasion of their night, but so far it hasn't worked for me. I suppose I can understand why someone would choose to shoot hoops at 4AM (perhaps it's their only free time in this test-taking-mad country) , but the lack of regard for the residents, who just possibly might be trying to grab some winks at that hour, is just so---Korean. This court should be indoors where it would be silent and inoffensive. I've learned to work around most of the vissicitudes that this country throws in one's face, but I have no option here, other than to go out with an acetylene torch, and burn that bloody thing down, and put up a badminton court.

[coolsage]

Mods, I should have placed this in 'General'. Can you move it? Thanks.

[stumptown]

How can Koreans have such an aversion to noise? Can it be social conditioning? Tonight I walked past an "outdoor" noreabang where some kids were shrieknig out a tune at ear shattering volume, and there were tables of ajosshis sitting right next to the speakers like it was nothing at all.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

And if by chance there is a small area that's quiet - like the courtyard of the War Memorial Museum or the tourist areas of the DMZ - they'll set up speakers and play music.

[eamo]

Speakers pumping out K-pop at a beach in Jeju-do was the best example of noise pollution I've seen here. You had to shout in each others ears to be heard. Koreans didn't even blink.

They do have an ability to accept noise outside as normal. God forbid you make noise inside though. Neighbors in Korea do not tolerate noise in apartments.

[mindmetoo]

My neighbor owned three dogs. He'd come home at 2 or 3 am almost every night. They would bark and howl solid for an hour. He knew he had a neighbor, me. Did it ever occur to him, even when I was pounding on our shared wall with a hammer, that maybe just maybe 3 howling dogs is not very neighborly?

Living in an apartment requires some small considerations. If you want silence, buy a house in the country. My philosophy is make as much noise as you want until 10 pm weekdays/midnight weekends. Then zip it.

[zappadelta]

Yea, I live across from the old baseball batting cage, that usually stays pretty noisy until about 3-4 am , so I feel your pain. Also, in the movie theaters, the speakers are so damn loud.

[chiaa]

I hear all of you!

I learned my first lesson with this with my first place in Korea. I lived right next door to a middle school and it did not occur to me that they would make the morning bell loud enough to be heard in a five square kilometer radius.

The second lesson came with the fish man (see previous stories) that would come into my new neighborhood at 7.30 in the morning three times a week with a bullhorn. I am sure he knows how to say shut the *beep* up in English with a perfect Floridian accent.

Two was enough for me. For my third and current apartment, I went CSI with it. I hung out in front of the place and in the hallways with a couple of beers two nights in a row checking out the noise level. All I was missing was a decible meter. I also took this place because it is surrounded by a balconey and there are actually three sets of windows to block out noise. First set, the outside bacloney. Second set, the outer sliding glass doors. The third set, the inner sliding glass doors.

I have also learned to sleep with my second pillow on top of my head.

Now if I can only stop the ten people (yes ten!) living above me from moving furniture around their apartment at midnight all would be well. This I can live with though.


Has anyone ever noticed how many Korean television shows have subtitles (not closed captioning)? This is so the one person who is actually listening in a group of people sitting around watching the show will be able to know what is going on.

As an extra side note, one of the big stations has this thing were they do a documentry on a family every week. There is usually something special or unique (weird by Korean standards) about them. This week was about a deaf kid.

Think they had closed captioning? The poor kid could not even hear (I guess read) his own documentry.

[animalbirdfish]

First apartment in Korea was above a rice cake shop that would start its grinder at about 6:00 AM, six days a week. Tried asking the guy nicely to start a bit later on Saturdays only (I worked at 6:30 AM on weekdays anyway). He'd have none of it. I superglued his door locks one morning and that bought me - for one day at least - about 90 extra minutes sleep. Pure heaven.

I guess, having lived in such close quarters all their life, Koreans are accustomed to the blasted noise all around them, but it's no good way to live. It's one of the big irritants of Korea, in my opinion, and quietude is one of the most important aspects of a house for me (good idea, Chiaa, on staking the place out).

[JacktheCat]

My current apartment had, when I moved in, I kid you not, at least a hundred small nails driven into the walls.

All I can figure is that either the previous tenet was a Jesus freak with penchant for crucifixes or he must have really hated his neighbours.

Just one of those Korean mysteries.

[jay-shi]

I have a dog farm about 300 meters from my apt building. When I first moved here last spring, i started sleeping with the window open. I couldn't figure out why I was often dreaming about dogs, having never owned a dog before.

I dawned on me that the dogs start barking in the middle of the night when I stayed out late and was awake to hear their barking.

Then a couple of days before the first dog day of summer .... no more barking!

[Hanson]

[stumptown]

[chiaa]