Azim Tilekov: “Studying in Korea was very exciting and challenging”

October 14, 2015

Azim Tilekov, a junior in the Business Administration program, spent his spring 2015 semester at the Kyung Hee University in South Korea. Azim shares his thoughts about life and education in South Korea.

"From the beginning, AUCA had been my top choice for my bachelor’s degree. The quality of the staff and the education, and the unique warm atmosphere greatly affected my decision to study at AUCA. With the help of my schooling at the Kyrgyz-Turkish high school and at the US-CAEF program, I had the opportunity to study in AUCA. Before coming to AUCA, I already knew that going to university would provide me with great opportunities to acquire both personal and professional experience through various exchange programs.

During high school, I always dreamed of studying abroad: discovering new horizons, being acquainted with new cultures, sharing experiences and meeting new people.
This opportunity came to me sophomore year. I applied to the Kyung Hee University exchange program in South Korea, Seoul and spent a wonderful semester there.
My decision to choose Korea was contingent upon its unique culture and the country itself; however, the main factor was that the university had one of the highest rankings.
Kyung Hee, with its 30,000 students, is ranked one of the top seven universities in Korea. I was honored to study there with outstanding students. I was able to meet wonderful people and make many new friends among both exchange and local students who made my memories in Seoul even brighter.

Korean culture is unique; its people are very kind. I was especially impressed by their reverence toward each other. Bowing is present everywhere: in subway, shopping, cafe, campus, parks and so on. I got used to bowing while there, and could not stop after returning to Kyrgyzstan. Studying in Korea was very exciting and challenging because there is a strong sense of competition between students. At Kyung Hee, I took business courses accompanied by real life modules that helped me to apply the theories. I can confidently say AUCA provides its students with a solid foundation because, while studying at Kyung Hee, I could easily compete with other students from all over the world.

The exchange is not just about studying. It is also about having fun, exploring new things and travelling. During spring holiday, I visited several big cities and islands outside of Seoul.
Over the semester, there were several activities and events organized by university student organizations. One of them was the International Festival. Each country represented themselves through traditional food and games. During this festival, I felt proud sharing Kyrgyzstan and our culture with my peers, many of whom had not even heard of Kyrgyzstan before. For the festival I prepared our traditional foods and organized traditional games.

While in Korea, I started to appreciate the real value of my country, and I could feel my patriotism growing gradually. Seeing the tremendous development in Korea, I started to think about what we could do in Kyrgyzstan to achieve the same results. In Korea, I could analyze their markets and glean some business insight, which I hope to put into practice soon.

To conclude, I hope all of AUCA’s highly motivated students take the opportunity to go abroad! It’s a useful experience that shifts our paradigm and challenges us to be mature both personally and professionally."

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