“Cagongjok” or in English we would say a cafe is a place where students gather for hours at a time and engage in conversation but more importantly, with their massive amounts of school work. The word “Cagongjok” simply combines the word for “studying” and “tribe” which is used for the students who study together at these coffee shops. They use the “tribe” aspect to depict the close-knit community and almost cult-like following in which these groups engage. Students often come to these cafes after school and may sit there for hours, spanning into the late night. Cafe owners are now getting fed up with these “Cagongjok” members because of the amount of time they spend there. These students may not even order a drink the entire time they are there which is making owners frustrated. I personally understand both sides of this debacle. On the one hand I can see how these Cafes can be a safe haven away from school and all the pressure that is built there. On the other hand, these students may or may not be taking away from the profits of these cafes. I think one way these cafes can find a happy medium is if they implement a policy that requires a purchase every 2 hours of time spent in the shop. This would in turn increase profits while allowing students to work for multiple hours before being reeled in to make a purchase. Students also need to be understanding to these cafe owners; if they do not purchase anything they are really just using the space for free and at the end of the day cafe owners need to pay their bills in order to allow the students to keep using the space. In the defense of the students I can also see their side, with all of this schoolwork when would they be able to work to make money? Of course students are always in a limbo of student/work/life balance and it may be a struggle for them to come up with the money to be making purchases every time they want to study. Although this seems like a large problem I believe that a happy medium will eventually come to fruition. I really love the cafe study phenomenon we do not see it as much in the United States and I personally love going to cafes to do work, it would be awesome to get groups of students to band together to make a similar community.