8 years in Turkey, I had grown up a lot. I was 18
when i came here. And now I'm almost 27. What a life. If i don't count i don't
know it's my 8th or 9th year here. 8 months of Turkish preparation course + 7
years of Medical degree in Turkish language including final year Housemanship
on the 6th Year. I've learnt a lot during this journey. Lot's of laughs and
tears. Learnt about past mistakes, full of ups and downs ,working hard to
develop myself , learnt about study methods time by time, religions,languages,
cultures , communication skills. From an introvert to an ambivert. And the most
important thing is being independent , it’s
not easy to be
thousand miles away from family for such a long period. But Alhamdulillah with
His permission, my parents, siblings, and friends’ prayers and support, I did
it ,I had graduated on January 2020.
I came to Turkey on September 2012 with Turkish
Government Scholarship /Turkiye Bursları by YTB
1st
year in TOMER. I miss those days. I remember the first time i put my step
there. Gazi TÖMER was located in Maltepe-Ankara. So every morning i took
Ankaray metro from Emek and stopped in Maltepe station. From there i walked for
5-8 minutes to the TOMER and Gazi Engineering faculty campus.The first student
i was talking to, i forgot his name, from China. He had this Malay look so when
he said he is from China, i asked him "Uygur?" He was very surprised and
happy that i knew it . It was 2012 September, the awareness about Uygur was far
behind compared to current situation. Nowadays people are more aware about
Uyghur, with campaigns for Uygur everywhere . There were 2 Uygur girls, 2
Georgian, Kyrghz, Russian Tatar, and a Romanian and a Moldovian in my class.
After sometime an Algerian girl joined our class , she is Zineb, my bestfriend
till now in Turkey . I was first placed in a class with full of Turkish speaker
.As most of my classmates were from Turkic countries or had studied in Turkish
college in their countries, it was easier for them to learn and communicate in
Turkish. My Turkish was literally zero. Merhaba/ nasılsın /Teşekkürler /yemek
nefis were the phrases that i knew. Now when i reflected back we don't even use
the word "yemek nefis" to say the food is good, we say "yemek
çok güzel" Because of my zero Turkish, i asked help from the Uygur boy for
translating ,and we went to the student office to get the document for my
residence permit. I remember my first class with Tayfun hoca, he asked me
Nerelisin (Where are you come from?) I answered "Malaysia". Then he
said "Malaysia'dan değilsin" . I could predict that he was saying I'm
not from Malaysia. Then i said again. Malaysia .Malaysia. Then he corrected me
"Malezya". Malaysia değil (not Malaysia. I was like " aaa
tamam"😁 Turkish preparation course was conducted fully in Turkish.
They didn't speak in English unless if someone really couldn't understand then
only they mentioned the English word. So basically learning Turkish in Turkish
and have a dictionary as your bestfriend. I can't explain how amazing the
course was. The next class was with Ziya hoca. For me,he had Pakistani/Indian
looking😁 I remember he wanted to explain about playing football, he was
mimicking how someone plays football . Most of the classes were full of mimics
and laughter.😁 But in general I was having difficulties in that class because
i was totally a beginner in Turkish, while some other friends took Turkish
level exams and moved to the next level. After a few days,I'd been transferred
to a class where there were all international students who were in the same
level as mine. It was much better for me to learn Turkish from scratch.
Surprisingly i was the only girl in that class. Other students were from
Ethiopia,Cameroon, Ghana, Comoro Island, Abkhazia (Georgia), Bangladesh and
Iran. Being the only girl, i was a bit awkward at the beginning, but their
friendliness made me feel comfortable to be there . Not to mention how friendly
the hoca (teachers) were, Şebnem hoca, Sevda Hoca, and Hande hoca. After few
days a Palestinean girl joined our class.
I
adapted in class well especially with my Ethiopian and Cameroon friends. Most
of them were master students only 3 of us were degree students. TÖMER life was
like a kindergarten life for me. Age, race, colour, religion, did not matter ,everything
was great there. I'm glad that i had the best TOMER life, some people said they
didn't like their TOMER life. Maybe because i was into learning the language,
of course at that time sometimes Turkish became difficult but i was into it and
i love learning it. The happiest moment when you realized time by time you
started speaking fully in Turkish. In my class we were not allowed to use
English or other languages during class time. Plus some of my classmates were
not an English speaker. In Turkey you will realize how Turkish language united
the international students. Most of the students who are from African countries
speak French ,and those who are from post- Soviet countries they speak Russian
instead of English. For example now me and my Yemeni bestfriend, we speak
Turkish most of the time. Some people questioned asked why we didn't we speak
mutual language as Arabic? I told them my mother tongue is Malay not Arabic. I
do speak little Arabic but I'd prefer to communicate in Turkish . So how
beautiful when International students in Turkey use Turkish to communicate with
each other. I love how Turkish government emphasized on their language, culture
, and promote tourism.
To
be continued....
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