Kagongjok: The Korean Cafe Study Culture That’s Sparking a National Debate
Everything a foreigner needs to know about South Korea’s most talked-about cafe phenomenon What Is Kagongjok? (카공족) If you’ve ever walked into a Starbucks in Seoul and wondered why half the tables are occupied by people with laptops, textbooks, and elaborate desk setups instead of people simply sipping coffee and chatting — you’ve just encountered the kagongjok (카공족) . The word itself is a clever Korean portmanteau: “ka” (카) comes from café (카페) , and “gongjok” (공족) is derived from gongbu (공부) , meaning “to study.” Put them together, and you get a term that literally describes “people who study at cafés.” These are not just casual coffee drinkers who happen to have a book open. True kagongjok are individuals — mostly students, exam-preppers, remote workers, and freelancers — who plant themselves at a café table for hours on end, sometimes an entire day , armed with laptops, tablets, noise-canceling headphones, and occasionally even multi-port power strips, external keyboard...