Interview with a student from India

The opening of new medical specialties at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University has brought a large number of students from India to our country. The demand for the medical profession in India has always been high. There are many reasons for this. There is a huge labour market, high salaries for doctors, and, above all, the humanistic idea of serving society and contributing to the development of their country.

Meeting representatives of a new culture always generates a lot of interest and many questions about what brought international students to our country. It is also essential what foreigners know about our university and what they think about their life in Kazakhstan.

We had a chat with a member of the Indian diaspora at our university, Katragadda Venkata Sai Sohitha, a first-year General Medicine student.

– Sohitha, we are glad to welcome you to Kazakhstani land, and we are curious to know where you are from. 

– My name is Katragadda Venkata Sai Sohitha. I am nineteen years old. I finished my high school and took a gap year before joining MBBS* at Al Farabi University. I am from Hyderabad, India. 

From the age of eight, I have wanted to be a psychiatrist. Now, I am considering other specializations as well. But in India, MBBS is very expensive. So, when I couldn't get a medical seat here in India, I started looking for other options and found information about studying Medicine abroad on Quora. 

– What did you know about Al-Farabi University before you arrived in Kazakhstan? 

– Al Farabi Kazakh National University is located in Almaty. It is one of the oldest and largest universities in Kazakhstan. Many notable alumni have graduated from this university. It also has a very good World Ranking and is recognized by World Health Organization and MCI**. 

The first thing that attracted me to this university is its ranking and that it is approved by MCI. Because of this, I can choose different places in the world to practice. The tuition fee is also comparatively low. Kazakhstan is also a safe country. These were the main things that caught my attention. 

– I know that educational systems in Kazakhstan and India are somewhat different. Were there any unusual things in the learning process of the Al-Farabi University that you had to adapt? 

– When I first started my classes, some teachers had an accent which I did not really understand and sometimes, they couldn't understand what I wanted to say. This is one common problem for international students. But I am really thankful that my teachers are patient enough to listen twice and sometimes even more. 

In India, our education system is very different from what we have in Kazakhstan. We do not usually have seminars and other interactive sessions. In Kazakhstan thanks to these interactive sessions, we become confident to speak up, and they also help us increase our knowledge and skills in one way. We also have extra disciplines in our curriculum like Political Science, Culturology, Sociology, etc. This provides us an opportunity to not just learn about Medicine but also about many other subjects. In my country, we do not have this option. So, if we choose MBBS, it will be about anatomy, physiology, and other medical subjects. 

There are many other things that I still do not know about the university, and I am very excited to know about them soon. 

Nadezhda Bershina

Why am I proud to be Al-Farabi University student?

I have been teaching the discipline “Foreign language” for nine years to the students of the first-year students of the Law Faculty.  Recently, at the beginning of the second semester, in one of my English lessons I conducted a thematic lesson on the topic “My Alma-Mater”.

 After the lesson, I gave the students the writing assignment on this topic. At the next English lesson, my students submitted their short essays. I was especially delighted to read the essays of law students studying Jurisprudence. And I decided that the best essays of my students deserve to be published in Kazakh University  newspaper.

Adele Muratova: 

– After finishing secondary school without hesitation, I chose Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Six month of our studies have passed and now I can definitely say that I am proud to be a student of al-Farabi University. KazNU is famous for its long-term popularity, good established authority and an excellent record  among other universities of Kazakhstan. Most of the judges and lawyers were graduated from this university. I am sure that my studies at KazNU will help me in my future life.

Azamat Sariyev:

– 40000 students study at  Al-Farabi  and I can proudly say that I am one of them. I can exactly state that our university is very versatile in disciplines and specializations. Currently, I am a student of the 1^st course of Faculty of Law, and I am very excited about this year. In my university I can develop the most important skills like communicative, critical thinking, reflecting, etc. A year ago, after I heard that many famous people as Olzhas Suleymenov and other outstanding people are graduates of al-Farabi KazNU,  I decided to join this amazing community. Only the best students, with a big passion and motivation to work, study at this university. I found new friends with common interests, and every day I try to do my best to gain everything from our wise teachers in order to be a fishmonger in my specialization. My university is the best one, and I will do everything to glorify the honor of my university’s name.

Bolat Zhansaya:

     – I applied for admission to the best university in our country - Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. My choice was Faculty of Law. The faculty has  highly professional and competent  teachers who have many years of experience in the field of law. I chose this specialty based on my personal preferences, the importance of this profession and the advice of my parents. I am really proud to be a law faculty student at –Farabi KazNU!

Sultan Zhanibek:

– I studied at the specialized lyceum “Arystan”. And since my childhood I have dreamed of serving in the law enforcement agencies of our homeland. Now, I am studying at the Faculty of Law – in my opinion, one of the best faculties of our university. I chose this faculty to make my dreams come true. The teachers are incredibly supportive, the curriculum is rigorous, so  I am sure the knowledge I will have gained  here will open roads to successful career.

For me it is a great pleasure to teach such smart, intelligent, motivated and bright students!! I am really happy to have them in my class!!!!                                                                                                          

Gulnaz Mussanova,

Senior lecturer of the Department of Foreign Languages,

Faculty of Philology

Students’ encouragement to learn English language through video projects

Nowadays the proficiency in English language acquires a vital significance for young people since English languages has become an international language which is widely used all over the world practically in all life spheres. Especially English language competence is very important for students because if you are fluent in English you can easily find a good job with a high salary or you will be able to claim for a foreign scholarship at a prestigious European or American university. So, the proficiency in English languages offers a wide range of opportunities for young generation. But there is one problem which is connected with encouraging students to learn English language. Today teachers of English languages use various tricks for students to arise their interest in learning English however not all of them always work. So what should we do in this case? The question is very good. At the faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University one English language  teacher together with the students made a decision to defend their projects  using video platforms like ZOOM, MS Teams and Skype. Students must prepare a presentation on a certain topic and record themselves through videocalls in ZOOM or MS Teams.

The launch of first video projects recorded by the first year bachelor students took place in February in 2022 when they were preparing to defend their individual assignment on the topic: “What makes me happy in this life”. Supported by the teachers the students suggested the video form of their presentation defense. They were given a wide choice of using different video platforms starting from ZOOM and MS Teams to Mail.ru video calls, Skype, Gmail. Com videocalls and etc. The students could do their projects in the group of three people or individually.  The students had to prepare their speech in video format showing slides. It should be noted that some students demonstrated their creative skills when preparing video projects. To make their presentations more vivid they used sound effects and colorful pictures. The texts of their presentations were simple and understandable. They used only Present Simple tense and well-known vocabulary like: rain, the sun, family, friends, food, animals, books, computer games and etc.  Each student was able to explain what things in his /her life are crucial for happiness. The given format was very welcomed by the students. After these project works, they reconsidered their attitude to English language and started thinking of the improvement of their language competence. Such a change was caused by the fact that the students were creating the simple texts in English by themselves without Internet resources. The slides contained only visual information but not textual. The texts of their presentation were of an instant character but generated by them not by other people. The impact of their presentations was enhanced by background sound and the effect of a video presenter used on television because while presentation the teachers was able to see both  their faces and slides  on the screen. Thus, sometimes students can also offer interesting ideas to their language teachers.  

Makhmetova Djamilya,

Senior teacher at Foreign language department

Prepared by Аizhan MULDAGALIEVA