"The Library is essential to me" - Youn Woo's SLQ story

Meet Youn Woo, one of our regular users of State Library of Queensland.

Youn Woo at SLQ. Image by SLQ staff member

I’m Youn Woo, I’m from South Korea and I’ve been in Australia for around 3 years. I grew up in Korea and after high school I went to military service, 26 months. Only one day after that, I left to go to China to study medicine.

I couldn’t speak any Chinese so I had to prepare for 10 months and pass the exam in order to enrol to university. I went to Beijing because I could study both the western and the eastern medicine, since the western approach has side effects that I don’t like. And in this way I could broaden my view.

I studied in Beijing for around 9 years, with major in Chinese medicine. After finishing my postgraduate school I worked in a hospital in Beijing. But my visa was almost expired by that time, so I had to find another place to live. I applied for jobs in Australia and that’s why I came here. Now I’m working in a clinic as Chinese medicine practician.

When I was at school in Korea I studied English but in China I didn’t have occasion to practice it, so my English was almost zero when I came. That’s the reason why I first came to the Library: I needed to get a good score for my IELTS English test! I needed to pass the test to get my licence approved. I didn’t know much about the libraries in Brisbane, but one of my friends at school said that there was a really good one in South Bank. So I said let’s go there!

There are a lot of libraries around in Brisbane, but here the circumstances are really the best. It’s very clean, good temperature, I can have my space to study comfortably. In South Korea the population is large and the territory is very small. You just don’t get all this space for you.

I can use the Wi-Fi and I can refill my water. I can have a break and walk around, hang out, and relieve my stress. If I ‘m at home and I’m tired I end up playing with the computer or sleeping. And I don’t want to spend my time like that. Since I’m not working every day, I come here to study things related to my major, to extend my knowledge for my own pleasure and interest. I’d say that overall the Library is essential for me!

When I visit a place, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth or any city in the world, the first places I go to are the libraries and the universities!

I think parking around the Library is too expensive. I have to come by bus because of that. So I’d make parking more affordable and I’d love to have the Library always open, from 7am to midnight!

As told to Fed Pani, Visitor Experience