Trendy city
Director: Lee Ganghyeok
Video
Theme:
As the economy develops, many people move from rural to urban. This phenomenon is called urbanization. These people would bring their dreams to urban. Compared to rural areas, cities have relevantly higher job opportunities and salaries. In the case of Korea where I currently stay, many young generations come to Seoul for jobs. Among many young people, they study in a cafe. Especially, many franchised cafes such as Starbucks are located in urban areas such as Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi. For instance, in Gwanghwamun, a city centre of Seoul, 42 Starbucks shops are located within a 1km radius (Cho, et al, 2018). Therefore, the density of franchised cafés itself indicated how developed cities are. Many people use the cafe as a place to do their work. In Korean, there is one neologism ‘Kagong-jok’, which refers to a person who studies in a cafe. Regardless of where they study, they would study in order to achieve their personal goals in their lives. A cafe is no longer a place to serve beverages and other bakeries. It becomes a new place where people can do their own business. In other words, there is a change in the function of the café. Through this final production, I decided to study in a café in order to figure out what factors make studying in a café attractive.
Method of research:
I read a lot of news articles about Kagong-jok and went to a coffee shop where they were likely to go.
As I carried out this assignment, I wondered why some people prefer to do their work in cafes rather than their premises or libraries. Hence, I decided to study in a café. I decided to visit one of the Starbucks branches, a typical franchised café. Especially, I visited a Starbucks branch where it is located nearby the university in order to observe people who studied in a café.
Video production:
There were many people in the cafe, so it was hard to produce videos since I could not only disturb them but also possibly infringe on their portrait rights. Hence, I tried to focus on environments. Especially, I tried to figure out how the environment in a cafe affects people’s studies. However, as I shot a video of the environment in a cafe, I tried to be careful and minimize possible disturbances that can affect other people. Normally, I prefer to study in the library to a cafe. Therefore, I decided to do my study in the cafe on the day when I shot a video. I included a video of myself studying in a cafe. While I was in a café, I tried to catch attractive features in the café that have led people to study in the cafés.
Reflection:
Not every single person comes to a cafe to study. Some of them had a conversation with their colleagues and have time to feel relaxed. It was quite noisy, so I personally felt like a cafe was not a suitable place to concentrate on my work. However, I felt like it was a better place in doing group studies such as debate, since c At the same time, I can see many people studying there. I was quite motivated by observing people there since I thought they had goals so they worked hard in order to achieve their own goals.
Also, unlike other restaurants, there is no limit to staying in a café. Of course, I was sufficiently aware that it was not a manner to stay for a long time. That is why people prefer to study in a coffee shop over a restaurant.
According to Lee(2019), Starbucks Korea tried to improve the environment in order for customers to stay in a shop for a long time. As a result, it leads to improvement of its friendliness and accessibility. Also, she mentioned that music contributed to people’s concentration on work, but I do not agree with it, since I could not concentrate on my work in such a noisy environment. I could not even hear music due to the noise.
In conclusion, a cafe is not a suitable place for individual study, but it could be better for group study. Kagong-jok becomes a new trend in urban areas.
Words count: 714
Reference:
Lee,J. (2019, January 3). [A business of Starbucks] A secret of noisy place where it is easier to concentrate on study. The Chosun Biz. https://biz.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2019/01/02/2019010202232.html
onversing with others and having any beverages and food are not permitted in libraries.
Cho,S, Kim,S, Kim,M. 42 Starbucks within 1 km in Gwanghwamun. Money Today. https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2018042421532274725.
You have touched upon an interesting phenomenon of Kagong. Yet, it seems that you have only looked into the way you use it. Have you interviewed/ observed other people? What are the different reasons that people prefer to study in a cafe? How does the cafe allow such an event to happen (i.e. what are the spatial features that made studying possible?) You may have a deeper analysis of the space to understand the phenomenon.