Growing up with British Council
Back in my high school days in 1999, my cousin and I loved going to the British Council library for self-studying English. The vast resources there enchanted me so much that I positively spent half day at my school and another half in that library. British Council library was among the precious few libraries in Hanoi to offer free membership. However, it was extraordinarily challenging to maintain membership to the library which had to be renewed every three months. I remembered queuing from very early on at Cao Ba Quat street to make sure I would be included in the renewal the membership.
Later on, when British Council moved to 40 Cat Linh street, I was a university student and still went to the library almost every day. The servicescape of the new library was modern and welcoming. I remembered indulging myself in the world of BBC news, films and documentaries about British culture, the British royal family, people and places. My adultescence was soaked in the English language simply that way.
When I was 27, I applied for a Master and took the IELTS test at British Council. There were a few reasons for doing that. I wanted to relive the old days, coming to the library, although I couldn’t do that often due to my being in employment. The other reason was the matter of integrity, that I used to work for IDP which is also an IELTS test center. I got my IELTS result and was accepted to the Master course.
Another milestone in my life that I need IELTS for was when I decided to further my studying via a PhD course in Australia in 2015. I came to British Council at Thuy Khe street to book a test date. I did the test, then got accepted to the PhD course.