Café as a place for social activities
Group activities and meetings are important to enhance social bond among group members (Yoon and Choi 89). They need common space available for group meeting and activities. The environment café provided precisely fits in their needs. It is a place that is distinct from home and workplace providing calm and comfortable environment. The survey from Kang, Tang, and Lee (813) showed that customers went to café for its environment more than for drinking coffee. More than fifty percent of interviewers told that their main purpose of going cafés is to meet friend. Customers can stay for a long time for only one drink and relax. They are not necessarily going for the food or drink, but the social space and atmosphere provided. Customers feel unrestrained because they can feel free to do anything without supervision of the employees(Song 159). As a result, it emerges to be an alteration space for Korean social groups to meet friends or do other social activities.
Constructing social identities
Coffee drinking is always associated with western lifestyle which is important in constructing certain identities of Korean café patrons (Kang, Tang, and Lee 815). Coffee can be viewed as a symbol of economic recovery and as a mark of social status since the rise of designer coffee (Song 144). The act of drinking coffee or going to cafés is stereotyped as westernized, fashion and socially successful symbol as portrayed in the Hollywood films like "Sex and the City", which showed a young lady dressing in brand name clothes holds a cup of Starbucks coffee on her hand (Song 3). Drinking instant coffee would seem as low-class and be differential from people visiting cafés. Social identities in Korean society are also important to be identified in different social groups. Since drinking coffee is associated with American popular culture and lifestyle and wealth, therefore, it becomes important in constructing social identities and a trend to enhance self-identities.
Collectivism means a social structure with high interdependency between individuals within their social groups such as families, colleges, workplaces or nations (Yoon and Choi 89). In other word, the society emphasizes on group interest, harmony and unity instead of the individual’s. Reversely, Harry C. Triandis (912) identified that individualism focuses more on the personal goals and independence among individual. There was a long development and influence of Confucianism in Korean history and developed collectivistic ideology in the society. This Korean cultural characteristic constructed their social pattern and needs.
Korean society as a collectivistic community depends more on group conformity rather than individual activities. For instance, the research of Bak Sangmee (48) revealed that American customers usually come to cafés individually and tend to communication with other customer and build up new social relationship. However, Korean customers like to meet in a group and rarely talk to others in cafés. They would prefer more privacy for their own groups. It further encourages the appearance of social groups in all position of life between family members, classmates and colleagues.
Korean culture and collectivism
