Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The evil penguin]

Does anybody else have a speaker mounted into their apartment roof that periodically an unpredictably blares out loud korean announcements any time during the day and night?? This thing has no volume controls or off switch and the first time it "spoke" it freaked the living crap out of me... The third time it began blaring out stuff at 7:30 in the morning (its like living with your own personal fruit truck...) was enough.... Out with a kitchen knife to undo the speaker screws (which were epoxyed in) and then it was a quick ripping disconnnecting of the wires....

It was bad. Preceded by a chiming announcement warning bell and then very very loud korean babble which would last for up to 5 minutes...

But no worries. Problem solved.

All was well..... until this morning.... I was woken up by a ringing of my door bell at 8:00. Before i could even stumble out of bed i could hear the door being opened.... Hung-over and wearing just a pair of boxers to confront the apartment security or whatever the hell he is fella (you know, the bloke in the blue uniform who lives in the box near the apartment enterence,,,) walking around my kitchen...

Apparently my windows were open and my curtains/blinds were flapping in the wind creating noise for my neighbours..... WTF????

Anyway, said rent-a-cop in a fancy blue uniform then noticed the gaping cavity in ther roof and dangling wires from where i had neglcted to replace the speaker...... The gold-fish like spluttering and blowing of agitated bubbles was comical...... until he grabbed a chair and was about to scramble up it to investigate further....

I was hung-over and grumpy and not in the mood for dwarf-wrestling.... Luckily i was able to get persuade him to get to the door with a firm hand on one shoulder and a warm bottle of leftover beer placed in his other hand.....

With much persuading and utterings of "molli apayo...... najunge najunge...." while miming the various actions involved in soju drinking, i was able to concince him to step out far enough so i could close the door....

Guess i should be expecting a phone call at work tomorrow....

So good to be back in korea.......

[sheba]

Aparently the speakers are for announcements from the manager...

the power will be off until 3pm due to maintenace...
no water for 2 days due to cleaning the tanks...
New rubbish pick up Tuesday...

etc etc

[The evil penguin]

[captain kirk]

I used to live in a little village, population 2,000 or so. It wasn't an aparment warren; I lived in a flat installed on top of the school. It was kinda nice since half the roof was unoccupied, open, out front of my pad. Since it was country, stars at night. Good short wave reception too. One day I was listening to Iran.

Anyway, there were still community/communal messages broadcast, just by loudspeaker. Yeah, there were loudspeakers on some lamposts/powerpoles broadcasting over the little, dragon-rooved hamlet.

7am every morning came the announcements, after static as he cleared his throat. 7am! Early to bed, early to rise....how they do it out in the country. Earplugs and jackhammer/shooter's earmuffs. Cutting the wires to all those speakers would have got me in as much trouble as you're in now

[JacktheCat]

That was one of the first things I did when I moved into my current apartment, disconnecting the speaker wires (didn't cut them though, I'll reconnect everything before I move out).

Now I can sleep in peace in the mornings.

[eamo]

While teaching Panasonic workers in factories in Japan the speakers would come alive every hour with the exercise music.

"HIE!!! Hep!!! Ichi, Ni, San, Si".....and so on for 5 minutes.

Refreshingly East Asian.

[tzechuk]

I really do not understand why Korean people tolerate this. How can they let just about anyone have their apartment keys and can walk in when they please?

So next time you lose something, even if you've just misplaced it, you should accuse the rent-a-cop because he has your key and he could've easily walked in and stolen something that caught his eyes when he went to your flat that morning. If he'd touched something, it'd be even better, then you can demand forensic and they can find his finger prints.

I am glad I do not live in apartments. If I did, I would have asked my husband to put in a digital lock right away. I like my privacy too much.

[thorin]

My girlfriend complains that she can't hear big brother since I cut the wires. I can hear him echoing from the 10 million other apartments just fine though.

[Captain Corea]

I've had that scare the crap outta me too! I asked my wife and she didn't seem bothered by it. Even during her "dramas" she seems to ignore the announcement and still manage to watch TV just fine.

[dogbert]

Had a chuckle yesterday morning when a very loud series of chimes and announcement requested that everyone be "quiet" that day to show respect for Memorial Day.

[JongnoGuru]

Been ages since the Guru lived in a Korean apartment, but threads like this are such a stroll down Memory Lane that it's... well, it's oddly reassuring to know that even in 2005, though there may not be nearly enough 'forced' squat-toilet episodes anymore, expats still have to put up with Big Brother and Little Soju-drinker. This country has changed so much and in so many ways, that it's kinda nice when old hands and newcomers can swap shared experiences like this.

Especially stories about guards walking into your place uninvited. You may be in bed, you may be at work, you may even be overseas on vacation, but make no mistake: he's getting in, come what may. Not just your landlord (and maybe your employer), but even the little soju drinker who lives in the box under the stairs -- he too has the keys to your world.

And I used to love how, right after the crackling static and right before they launch into the five-minute harangue about "no hot water for 4 weeks", they'd do that obligatory dirty-old-half-retarded-man sound ("1,2,3 -- Testing" Korean style): "hah. hah. hah-hah. hah. hah-hah-hah..." Oh lord, I can hear that voice even now!

Yeah, go ahead and yank the cover off the speaker and disconnect the wires -- they love that! I know of two cases, years ago, where they DEMANDED that the foreigner reattach it or be fined (!?), and they even made repeated follow-up inspections to make sure that he had obeyed them. (Is this South or North Korea?)

Oh yes, Captain Kirk reminds me of my pre-Internet love affair with the shortwave radio. Still have it. Just don't use it as much. That and a microcassette recorder are about the only things I own and can point to & say: "It's a Sony!"

[krats1976]

I had one of these in my apartment in Seoul, but they never used it and I don't have one in my current apt (thank GOODNESS). So, I didn't know what it was for until I was at my friend's house in Gangneung a couple of months ago (after 16 months in Korea). I heard what I thought was a TV in another apartment or something. I was quiet enough that you couldn't make out the words, but loud enough to be annoying. I asked what it was and my friend explained the concept to me. Yipes!! I just so happened that I was reading The Giver with my 7th graders at the time, and I got even more freaked out when I re-read the part about the "speaker" in every dwelling.

1984 was the first thing I thought of too when I found out what those things were. It gave me a very weird vibe that whole weekend. I was seeing Big Brother everywhere--in the apt. speakers, the random breathalyzer tests (administered to my friend, a fellow teetotaler) and when I came home and noticed the big speakers set up on the buildings around my school/apartment complex.