In the carriage, the sunlight shines through the window to cast dappled light and shadow, adding a bit of warmth and comfort to this journey. Sitting on the high-speed train from Suzhou to her hometown in Anshan, Liaoning Province, Weiwei recalled the experience of "wandering" in the big city in the past seven years, allowing her thoughts to drift away with the scenery outside the window.
Having worked in Suzhou for many years, she often envies the "prosperity" of education in southern cities – the strong smell of books, spacious and bright learning environment, and advanced educational resources, and she is glad that she has experienced all this firsthand. She also dreams that her hometown can become like this......
Thinking of her own experience of studying abroad and planning and starting a business, an idea grew from the bottom of her heart and couldn't be suppressed - why not open a study room in her hometown? "I can take advantage of this reason to visit my hometown often and take the initiative to deepen the connection with my hometown, but also to bring the good learning concepts I saw in the south to the young people in my hometown and make some changes." Vivi said.
Weiwei's self-study room in Anshan Photo provided by the interviewee
In recent years, paid study halls, which focus on "immersive learning", have become popular, and more and more young people have to spend money on self-discipline. According to publicly reported data, as of 2022, the number of paid study room users in mainland China has grown to 7.55 million, of which more than 50% are young people between the ages of 20 and 30. Compared with the payment of more than 1,000 yuan in first-tier cities, a monthly card for a study room in the county is generally only about 300 yuan, which is very friendly to people who need to stay in the study room.
What does the popularity of paid study halls indicate? Li Chuang, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that "this is an adaptation and response of the market to the emerging learning demand and insufficient public supply in modern society." The design and planning of learning spaces should fully meet the needs of different groups and contribute to building a more inclusive and diverse learning society. ”
After the saturation of paid study rooms in big cities has gradually reached a state of saturation, more and more young people, like Weiwei, choose to open paid study rooms in small cities. Zhengguan News reporters interviewed several entrepreneurs and listened to their stories about what happened in the study room in the small town.
It has established a bond spanning more than 1,600 kilometers
The idea came to fruition, and Weiwei opened a study room in her hometown of Anshan, Liaoning Province. In 2017, unlike some young people who went out to work hard, while completing 4 years of university studies in Suzhou, Weiwei also found her own entrepreneurial direction - to become a study abroad planning teacher.
In the past 7 years, she has planned different study abroad paths for many confused young people, and gradually realized that there is a certain information gap between the big cities of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai and her hometown.
And because of her long-term work in the south, Weiwei gradually felt that there seemed to be a "gap" between her hometown and herself. Once, when Weiwei crossed a distance of more than 1,600 kilometers and returned to her hometown Anshan from Suzhou, standing on this familiar and unfamiliar land, a faint sense of alienation surged to her. Although the people who grew up with her are still there, and the old roads at the entrance of the alley are still not paved, her hometown is still becoming more and more strange to her.
She gradually felt that the imprint of her hometown in her memory was fading, compared with the bright city life, the memories of the small town were no longer so real, and the topics with her family and friends did not seem to be as speculative as before, which made her a little anxious, and she was eager to "do something" to get out of this predicament.
People who have seen the world want to go home the most.
"Let's open a study room in my hometown!" The thought crossed Vivi's mind. This gave Weiwei an "excuse" to work and go home at the same time, not only to visit her home often, but also to establish an emotional bond between her and her hometown, and to bring some of the learning concepts she saw in the south to her hometown and make some changes.
So, at the end of April this year, a paid study room carrying the "expectations" of Weiwei and her friends was built silently, and Anshan, Liaoning Province, a small hometown city, also quietly added a 24-hour open learning place.
"This month, the study hall with a capacity of more than 30 people was full almost every day, which surprised me, and the income was relatively considerable." Weiwei said. However, Weiwei didn't want to use the study hall as a side hustle with relatively stable returns.
She has witnessed how young people who come to her for study abroad planning start a new stage of life with clear goals, and she has also seen young people in her hometown make choices in confusion but can't leave the small city. She seems to be a little luckier than the second group, but she wants to expand this "luck" and expand it to all the young people in her hometown.
"I want to use the study room to provide some learning resources to break the information gap, and I also hope to be able to share some of the more advanced learning experiences and information channels in the south with everyone who comes from the study room." Vivi explained.
At the beginning, Weiwei worked the decoration, decoration and operation of the study room - the study room has set up a variety of scene theme rooms, and customers can choose to study in different theme rooms according to their personal interests. Later, when there were more people waiting to study, Weiwei began to create and organize some online learning communities, sharing information related to graduate school entrance examinations, public entrance examinations, job hunting, and studying abroad for free. "Many people in my hometown still have the idea that the word 'study abroad' is too far away from them, or that it is too expensive and difficult to achieve, but in fact, this threshold is getting lower and lower." Vivi said.
Harry Potter-themed study room Courtesy of the interviewee
In the past two months, Weiwei's study room is developing towards her ideal state, but when the study room first opened, she also encountered some "difficulties" that did not seem like difficulties.
"The first obstacle I encountered was that people couldn't operate the mini program online, and it seemed difficult to even enter the door of the study room." Vivi said. In Weiwei's eyes, the original intention of the study room is to provide a platform for customers to learn and develop in the future, and it should not be wasted on tedious things such as figuring out how to enter the door and how to choose a seat. This made her feel even more that there are "barriers" between small cities and big cities.
The more people can be faced, the more inevitable this kind of tedious little thing will become.
Some customers will contact Weiwei because the doorbell rings and affect their learning, and some customers will contact Weiwei because the water dispenser has no water. Sometimes, some parents of students studying in the study hall will ask Vivi for surveillance.
She clearly remembered that day she was in the study room to check the attendance of the week, a woman about 30 years old quietly walked up to her, Vivi looked up and asked her what help she needed, and the next moment the woman opened her mouth and said something that made her eyes widen: "Can you send me the surveillance video of your study room?" I want to see if my child is really serious about it. ”
Weiwei was shocked by the parent's request, "On the one hand, it will definitely infringe on the privacy of other people who come to study, and on the other hand, it is difficult for me to agree that parents 'tie up' their children to educate." Vivi recalled.
For her part, she understands the urgency of parents to pay attention to their children, but she feels that this method is wrong, and she is also impressed by the approach of another parent. "There was a mother who brought her child to the study hall, and the child studied, and the mother studied. That child should be a junior high school student, and I think this kind of education is the right way. Vivi said.
A turning point in life is opened in confusion
"Anyway, if you don't take the postgraduate examination, you will take the public examination!" "If you fail the graduate school entrance examination, hurry up and find a job!" Her parents' advice echoed in her ears repeatedly, Hei Xi lay on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, the scene in the dream and reality gradually overlapped, she patted her head, and after a while, she gradually woke up, some things are already in the "past tense".
When did you start dreaming about this? She thought about it carefully, it should be from the moment she found out that her graduate school entrance examination results were neither high nor low, and she suddenly began to worry about her future. Although a long time has passed, Nozomi recalls the silhouette of that time, describing it as "the sky has fallen". After being silent for a long time, one day Xixi suddenly flashed a "talisman" to avoid the harassment of his parents - trying to open a study hall in his hometown.
She doesn't have a clear goal or plan. On the one hand, because she often prepares for exams in the study room, Xi Xi thinks that opening a study room may be a way to make money. On the other hand, a post-90s girl in the same township also opened a study hall but it was full every day, and the thought of "I can too" flashed in Xixi's mind. And this kind of aimless planning also tells her deep confusion.
"I had a spare room at home, and I thought I might as well use it to open a study room and earn some extra money while looking for a job. At first, my parents didn't support my decision, but they couldn't withstand my hard work. Hihi recalled.
With a sense of apprehension, at the end of December 2022, Xixi's study room officially opened in her hometown of Qufu, Shandong, and 21-year-old Xixi devoted herself to this "grand" cause with enthusiasm. She cleaned the empty room of the house spotlessly, put up new tables and chairs, a microwave, and a fridge with self-pickup drinks, and adopted a 24-hour online self-service mode like other paid study rooms.
Xi Xi's self-study room in Qufu Photo courtesy of the interviewee
But soon reality gave her a slap in the face. "The revenue of the study hall has not been very good in the first year of its opening, and it has been losing money." "During this time, my mom said that even renting out the house was better than doing a study hall. Hei Xi didn't want to quit like this, she promised her parents a "decent" job, and at the same time worked hard to run this small world.
Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. She looked up a lot of information and studied the experience of opening a study room shared by others on the Internet, from the beginning of going to the study room every day to "sit" for a while, and then she "stayed" in the study room all day long, and before she knew it, the attendance rate of the study room was getting higher and higher. "One day, I was just about to go to the study room, but a notification popped up in the appointment applet, telling me that the study room was full that day, and that was the first time." Xixi said with emotion.
In the process of running the study room, Nozomi meets many people every day, and she is impressed by one of the regular customers of the study room, a girl who has just graduated from high school.
Study room living room Courtesy of the interviewee
Unlike other young people who take the public entrance examination, the little girl has just failed the college entrance examination, but she is ready to study all day in the study room, repeat and prepare for next year's college entrance examination. "Every morning from 6:30 to 23:00, she studied in the study room, and every day she came the earliest and left the latest." Hehi recalled. This reminded her of her memories, and she was a little embarrassed when she was preparing for the graduate school entrance examination.
Xixi can feel the little girl's entanglement, and she understands her attempt and courage to "start all over again", why doesn't Xixi want to try again? She, like many young people who failed the graduate school entrance examination, seemed to be unable to let go of the obsession in her heart. But with the arrival of an offer, this regret seems to have no chance to make up for it again.
"I received an offer from a state-owned enterprise, which was a 'decent' job in the eyes of my parents." For Heixi, this is also a new stage in her life, as if the fog has lifted, and the floating boat has seen the shore and has landed on the shore.
Hei Hei quickly collected her mood and gradually began to hand over the work of the study hall to her parents, but she decided that she would still go and sit more often when she was free. "Opening the study hall was a turning point in my life, and in another sense, it also taught me a lot of life lessons."
Conflict of interest broke off a 4-year friendship
"If you move the air conditioner, I will buy it again, and I can open the study room alone." Xiao Wu hung up the phone and ended his 4-year friendship with his friend. Since she decided to open a study hall with her friends, the bond of friendship between them has become more and more fragile until it can be broken at any moment, and she has gradually understood the deep meaning behind the phrase "don't do business with friends" - a relationship that is difficult to repair after a conflict of interest.
The reason why he decided to open a study room was because when Xiao Wu was preparing for the graduate school entrance examination, he thought that his hometown of Pucheng County, Weinan, Shaanxi Province had this kind of market demand. "I started preparing for the exam very early, and I would often go to the study room for self-study, and once when I returned to my hometown in the summer, I also wanted to find a study room to study, but after searching on the software, I found that there are not many such study rooms in my hometown." Xiao Wu recalls that at that time, she had the idea of "can I also open a study room".
In 2023, as the last period falls on the exam paper, Xiao Wu's postgraduate career will also come to an end. Regardless of his grades, Xiao Wu hopes that he can turn his former ideas into reality, and he can also leave a way out for himself. After she told her good friend Xiao A about her thoughts, she didn't expect that Xiao A would have the same idea. But the two also agreed that the study room market in the big city is saturated, and both of them are novice entrepreneurs, so maybe it will be more promising to open a study room in their hometown.
At the end of this year, after simply searching for some "strategies" on the Internet, Xiao Wu and his friend Xiao A inspected the decoration, operation, and demand of the study room, and decided to set up a study room in their hometown Pucheng County. At the beginning, the two discussed to jointly fund the opening of a study room, and the advance cost was half of the money, and the income was fifty-fifty cents. "I said that I would contribute half of the capital to one person, but she said that she was 'tight on hand', and the funds for starting a business finally became all my responsibility." Xiao Wu said.
Xiao Wu's study room in Pucheng Photo provided by the interviewee
Although he felt a little guilty in his heart, because of his 4-year friendship, Xiao Wu didn't say much. But what happened next made Xiao Wu feel that his friend was not "responsible".
Perhaps out of guilt, my friend offered to buy two air conditioners for the study room. "But she wanted to be cheap, bought two second-hand air conditioners, and they broke down in a month, so I discussed with her to let her change them, but she didn't want to." Xiao Wu was very angry, and the two of them quarreled because of this, "The air conditioner is broken and can't be used, this thing is a necessity, I don't want to fight over these things anymore." She asked Xiao A to move the air conditioner away, decided to open this study room by herself, and completely cut off contact with Xiao A.
As soon as she started her business, she was poured cold water on her trusted good friend, almost extinguishing all her ideals and drive, but this was only the beginning.
For convenience, Xiao Wu bought a carpet that needed to be laid in the welcome area of the study room on a shopping software, and when it was finished, his father came to visit the study room and told her the truth, "I have no desire to enter the study room when I see this carpet." So, she bravely walked into the building materials market she had never been to, and tried to bargain with the merchants in the way of a "shopping veteran", looking forward to buying high-quality and inexpensive study room supplies.
"There are a lot of small things like the wrong carpet and the air conditioner I bought leaking after a few days, but in fact, thinking about it differently, it has also added some life experience to me." Xiao Wu said seriously.
Customers from the study room Courtesy of the interviewee
What impressed her the most was that one morning, she opened the mobile phone app as usual, wanting to check the evaluation of the study room and reply, but found that there were several more consecutive bad reviews, "The experience is very poor, and I don't want to go again at all!" "Junk shop, close early!" …… This made her chuckle in her heart, but she calmed down and thought about it carefully to find that there didn't seem to be any "accidents" in the study hall recently.
This made her wonder if it was a malicious bad review. She once learned that the most prominent features of some malicious bad review templates on shopping software are indiscriminate attacks with no consumption records, no reason, no factual basis, and multiple similar reviews in a row in the same time period, and those bad reviews all meet these three characteristics. "I clicked into the homepage of the bad reviewer to see, and I didn't get anything, so I investigated it privately, but found that it was a peer." Xiao Wu tried to contact and request the deletion of the bad review, but to no avail, so she could only continue to work hard to run the study room, hoping to resist the malicious review with more praise.
Although he has always been serious about running a study room, Xiao Wu has never thought of making it his main business. In his spare time, Xiao Wu silently became a member of the "Examination Army". "The end of the universe is the examination editor," Xiao Wu joked. And her hard work has paid off, she successfully landed this year, and only she knows the hardships behind it.
Although she stumbled along the way, fortunately, everything was developing in a good direction, and for Xiao Wu, this was also an important step for her to enter society.
(Names have been changed)
Copyright Notice
The copyright of this article (including but not limited to text, pictures, music, videos, etc.) belongs to Zhengguan Media Technology (Henan) Co., Ltd., and may not be used in any way, including reprinting, excerpting, reproducing or mirroring without the authorization of Zhengguan Media Technology (Henan) Co., Ltd. If you need to reprint this article, please contact the background to obtain authorization, and should use it within the scope of authorization, and indicate the source of Zhengguan News and the original author, and shall not provide this article to any third party.
Zhengguan Media Technology (Henan) Co., Ltd. reserves the right to pursue the legal responsibility of the infringer