And the first step began...

28 October 2013


 

                            My Univ, GAZI UNIVERSITESI ( MAIN CAMPUS)

 

     Alhamdulillah without realizing it had been almost 2 months I got my title as a first year medical student in Gazi University ,Ankara.In Turkey now, as far as I know, there are only 5 Malaysian students including me who are studying medicine.Since Malaysian government hasn’t provide any scholarships for students to study in Turkey, the number of Malaysian students here are soo few. Most of us are supported byTurkish Government Scholarship. Now, october 2013, there are around 40 or more Malaysian students in whole Turkey,compare to Indonesian which around 200 students only in ANKARA. As we are the ‘minority’ here, all of us are living far from each other. We are studying in various city, like me and 2 new friend in Ankara(last year I was the only Malaysian student and it made me being the first Malaysian student who study in Gazi University. Proud? Hehe ), other friends in Konya, Kirikkale, Balikesir, Kocaeli, Istanbul, Malatya, Bursa, Gaziantep , Kayseri,Izmir and Isparta.

          Life as a medical student seriously as what I expected.I just  had my  Semester  1 done last 2 weeks and my second semester had started last week. Life in medical field is not like  in highschool anymore. It will be a long jihad with full of bitter and sweet moments that i will pass through. My jihad journey in this Ottaman land will takes around 7 years insallah including my Turkish course. Im sure at this moment all of my foreigner friends who had just learnt Turkish in a short term as I had must having difficulties in their studies no matter what department they are in,due to the course that conducted fully in Turkish language. 

                                   My first day in medical lessons. 

I was informed to gather in a hall in level 6 of the dekanlik building for taklimat that given by the faculty of medicine high committee members for first year medical students. i heard from my friends that for last year session there were about 80 medical students who had failed in their first year studies. And since the number of foreign students are few, almost all the foreign students had. This news really scared me Allah knows. Being a foreign  student in a class with almost 300 turkish students is a very big challenge for me n other friends. When I entered my class, Amfi 5 for the first time, nervous feeling overwhelmed me. You cant imagine when you entered a class, no small class, a big hall full with hundreds of Turkish students  and at that moment you cant detect any of foreign students among them and you are seems the only one. All eyes are staring at you because you are obviously an 'alien'. That’s what I felt.i was not scared being a foreigner among the locals,I got used to it since I’ve been in here for a year but what I was thinking is about how my study gonna pass. There are a lot of students who will compete  me. 

 

our DNA project

           The first point is the Medical studies itself, yeah it’s one of the toughest department s and all the students who are eligible for this department have excellent background when they were back in school.but dont forget when you success in highschool doesnt means that you will be the most excellent in university unless you struggle, My friends keep asking me how many markhs that I got during high school that allowed me to be here , in this ‘nerd’ faculty. now i dont care about what i got in the past besides trying to achieve what in the future.

         The second point is learning Medicine 100% in Turkish language. At first I think this is one of the craziest decision that I’ve made.while my malay friends in Malaysia and in another countries studying medicine fully in English which are already tough, Im studying medicine in this foreign language that I’ve just started learnt from zero during 8 months. but seriously, seeing other malaysian friends who are studying in other countries n in alien languages also motivating me to study harder since im not the only one who are confronting this tough conditions,

          For first semester’s lessons, I had Organic chemistry, Tibbi Biology, Public Health and Medical History and Etique. I supposed to study Turkish Literature ,English,Ataturk’s Revolution and History for that semester but I just started in second semester. Those subjects (literature and history) which I used to consider as ‘unimportant subject’ are compulsory subjects for first year students in some departments. Before I learnt those subjects, I realized that if I didn’t have  chance to learn them now, I don’t think I will obtain such precious  knowledge. Knowledge is still a knowledge. So I should be grateful for having chances to learn it ,vallah im feeling so lucky.

             For this semester Im studying Biochemistry, Tibbi Biology , BioPhysics, Psikiyatri and Public Health. I will learn Histology, Anatomy etc in another semesters. In my school, within a year (September-July) we have 5 semester (komite).

           When I had my lessons in the first week,  I really couldn’t focus on what lecturers were explaining, I tried to but I could only catch few words and it was really bored for me. I felt very sad vallah but I believe it was just a beginning. Actually until now im still having the same problem but Alhamdulillah its not as bad as before. Im sure insallah day by day it will get better until I can understand full lectures insallah, and I also can achieve good markhs as other students if I put more efforts on study and keep relying on Allah . I just got my result for first semester exam and it s a dissapointment for me. I got 41% for the 100 objective questions. When my other foreign friends asked about my markhs I told them and they keep supporting me. They said I did a good job because its not easy for a foreign students to get high markhs. we wont be able to compare our markhs with Turkish students in this early stage because they are studying in their mother tongue. 

        One of my friends, Zuhre from Iran keep advising me with supporting words .She was one of the foreign students who had repeated first year . I believe on her because she is experiencing more as she was in the same year last year. She told me I must keep go on my efforts ,as she said last year there was a foreign student from  somewhere in Africa (just like me , didnt know turkish at the beginning) who got only 8% for semester 1 exam but she didn’t lose hope and finally able to  pass her first year and now studying in second year. So no matter how many markhs I got now, it doesn’t mean I will pass or fail later , my istiqamah efforts will guarantee my success later insallah. I knew some of my Malaysian seniors who are now already in the third year. So if they able to reach such level, why cant i? they also had pass through the hardship that im feeling. So I talked to them , asked for the tips of their successes, and insallah will keep thinking positive.

And what most important is I must get rid of my emotional that sometimes made me lost hope . as long as I have Allah beside me, insallah the successes are mine.Pray for all of us here