I live near an elementary school…3-4 alleys away so not right next to it. Every morning they have their stupid morning gathering where they pack every kid at school into that tiny little quad then proceed to hammer on drums for a good half hour followed by another hour of band practice, singing and morning announcements on loudspeakers. They do this almost every morning and I can’t begin to describe how much this bothers me especially after an entire day of work.
Is there something I can do? I tried getting out of the apartment right when the morning gathering began, but I swear you could still hear the noises 10 streets away.
You might be able to file a report, but I really doubt anyone would do anything about it, or even take you seriously.
In Taiwan, part of the routine of renting a place to live (as a foreigner, at least) should be a check of the surroundings for temples (in particular) and schools, two of the largest sources of noise. Oh, and random steel manufacturing companies on the ground floor, dogs kept in cages 24/7, and anything else that could interfere with the peaceful enjoyment of your premises.
(I’m not being flip. I once had a Palm OS app to help people look for apartments and it had a noice source checklist included as part of the ‘due diligence’ before signing.)
Probably the only realistic option for you is to move.
When I visited the neighborhood I thought it was relatively slow and quiet compared to downtown Taipei City, but it was during the day and not in the morning so didn’t imagine that it’d be this terrible. Since everything else about my apartment is fine I’m probably not going to move and just having to suck it up.
It’s just disturbing how inconsiderate they are, especially when it’s an elementary school.
Your problem is more serious than mine and i think you can’t do anything about it.
I live next to a park and some nights there are some people talking very loudly at night. They probably drink too. I though about complaining but they never seem to carry on until too late. Also kids screaming at 11pm is another problem but that also ends up before bed time and not everyday.
There is a new “noise control act” of the EPA since 2008 but it mainly focuses on factory noise and car noise (low frequency noise). epa.gov.tw/en/epashow.aspx?l … lang=en-us
You could contact the EPA to see what they see relevant about it.
In any case you can file a complaint at the police.
The “Public Order Maintenance Act” (社會秩序維護法) has a long section about noise.
In Chinese, around article 72: law.moj.gov.tw/Scripts/Query4B.a … e=D0080067
Can I file a noise complaint? Shouldn’t this be in the bad jokes forum?
I empathize with you. I once lived directly across the street from a school and experienced exactly what you describe. Virtually every day begins with “BAOGAO!” broadcast at extremely high volume, followed by a series of announcements and bad music that can be heard several blocks away. At close proximity it’s truly maddening. Of course, if one works or attends school during the day it’s not an issue, but when I was between jobs and sitting at home I was climbing the walls (and launching bottle rockets into the schoolyard).
But dragonbones is right. Earplugs or moving are your only real options.
Do you think Taiwanese kids grow into noisy, inconsiderate adults by accident? Of course not. They have to be trained for the task. You are attempting to interfere with the training of the next generation of selfish motherfuckers whose sole purpose in life is to make as much fucking noise as is humanly possible. You think the establishment will give up on this important task because you politely ask them to keep it down a bit? Move house if you don’t like living next to the training camp.
I lived opposite a school for a few years that taught each year’s band intake just two tunes – the Star Wars theme and Downtown. They got old pretty fast. Used to start at around 6:30am until I called the Man who came with a dB reader, took one look at it and marched over to the school, which was told to keep it quiet until after 9. The school complied, too!
There’s always someone, somewhere, making a noise here. When it’s a quiet morning, I can imagine all the locals getting edgy, restless and fidgetty until someone has to go out and start hammering, sanding down old furniture, or singing karaoke.
I deal with it, but today it’s getting on my tits. There’s been the same truck parked down the road spewing out crap on the loudspeaker for a good half hour. Shut the F up.
Like someone said above, it’s only truly peaceful when it rains.
Get yourself the loudest musical instrument you can find, including one that’s amplified. Maybe some amplified bagpipes. Play the same out of tune note for the first thirty minutes of their assembly. It’s even better if you can play chords on the instrument, or if it has any ability to play a drone note in addition to others. Play anything incredibly dissonant. Throw in another note for fifteen seconds at random intervals of two to three minutes.
Speaking of band practices, we have these kids near our office at our school who play all these weird Chinese instruments (some of them look like they should be in the Star Wars Cantina). Every practice, for the whole two years I’ve been there, the same kids have been playing the same really drawn out scales for the entire practice sessions. That’s all they ever do. Thirty minutes or more of bloody C major scale holding each note for ten seconds, week in, week out. I can’t work out what the fuck it’s about. It’s like I could pick up the instrument and play more on it than these kids.
[quote=“Nuit”]There’s always someone, somewhere, making a noise here. When it’s a quiet morning, I can imagine all the locals getting edgy, restless and fidgetty until someone has to go out and start hammering, sanding down old furniture, or singing karaoke.
I deal with it, but today it’s getting on my tits. There’s been the same truck parked down the road spewing out crap on the loudspeaker for a good half hour. Shut the F up.
Like someone said above, it’s only truly peaceful when it rains.[/quote]
Projectiles my good neighbor…thrown, shot or slung from a height at the noisy cretin in question. I miss my old apartment where there was what I called “a bend in the alley near the grassy knoll” I Lee Harvey Oswalded my way through many a dull afternoon.
Ja, I want to buy a loudspeaker. So when the pricks start up with the band and the exercise yi, er, sun, si; er, er, sun, si; and the Hitler rants on loudspeakers waking up my bubs, he can turn around and let rip straight back.
Only fair. He’s about 120 dec straight from the get go, so it would be interesting to see what that would be amplified…
[quote=“Bubba 2 Guns”][quote=“Nuit”]There’s always someone, somewhere, making a noise here. When it’s a quiet morning, I can imagine all the locals getting edgy, restless and fidgetty until someone has to go out and start hammering, sanding down old furniture, or singing karaoke.
I deal with it, but today it’s getting on my tits. There’s been the same truck parked down the road spewing out crap on the loudspeaker for a good half hour. Shut the F up.
Like someone said above, it’s only truly peaceful when it rains.[/quote]
Projectiles my good neighbor…thrown, shot or slung from a height at the noisy cretin in question. I miss my old apartment where there was what I called “a bend in the alley near the grassy knoll” I Lee Harvey Oswalded my way through many a dull afternoon.[/quote]
:bravo: