A cafe in Bundang, Gyeonggi, is filled with people even though it is early in the morning. Nearly everyone who looks like they might be in high school is busy doing something on their laptop or concentrating on their work with earphones on.
In the past, most people found working in cafes tended to be businessmen or university students. However, an increasing number of high school students can now be seen studying there. It may be hard to believe for previous generations of students, who were more used to studying in designated study rooms with tightly packed desks separated by dividers.
While older adults might not be able to imagine how students can manage studying in crowded, open spaces like cafes, stereotypes about study environments are changing. Nowadays, students prefer to study in places where they can do various other activities besides studying, while also boosting their productivity.
“Studying in an extremely quiet study room is painful to me,” said Park Seung-joo, 17, from Anyang, Gyeonggi. “I have to be careful even with coughing and flipping pages.”
She added that while the somber mood of study rooms forces her to concentrate more, the relaxed atmosphere in study cafes encourages her to study more freely and creatively.
When Park’s mother, Ahn Soo-in, was asked whether she was worried about her daughter being disrupted by the noisy atmosphere of cafes, she replied, “Not really. I think studying depends less on one’s surroundings and more on daily condition”.
In order to satisfy demand, Kim Yoon-hwan established the TOZ Study Center in 2001. His reason, he said, was because “after six years of preparing for exams, I realized there were not enough places to study as a group.”
In order to differentiate itself from standard study rooms, TOZ has custom environments to suit individual methods and styles of studying. There are four kinds of rooms at TOZ: Solitary Rooms, Creative Rooms, Open Study Rooms and Media Rooms.
Students who feel comfortable studying alone can use the Solitary and Creative Rooms, similar to normal study rooms often found in libraries. Students who want to talk with friends or study as a group can use the Open Study Room, and in the Media Room, students can listen to Internet lectures.
Some students, though, are reluctant to study at TOZ because it is pricier than standard study rooms, with a monthly charge ranging from 210,000 won ($180) to 240,000 won, compared to a monthly rate of 120,000 won to 160,000 won in normal study rooms.
Even with the higher price tag, owing to its better-quality services, the number of students visiting TOZ continues to grow, which has led to franchising. Since the opening of a branch in Sinchon, Seoul, in 2001, the number of new franchises skyrocketed nearly 320 percent. While there were only 35 branches in 2012, there are now 112 branches nationwide.
With this new trend of studying in open spaces, study cafes similar to TOZ are quickly springing up in large numbers. Not only franchises but also private study cafes, such as Loungewe and Yolo, are multiplying daily, and each of them offers unique and diversified services.
Loungewe in Bundang, for example, “[aims] for cooperation with others.” If users share at least three books, they can get discounts on beverages.
At Yolo, another study cafe in Bundang, users can reserve and use beam projectors.
BY AHN SHERY, JUNG MOON-HYE AND LEE HYEON-JIN [[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]]
