Onur Isbiter: “I want to stay and work in Hungary.”

Onur Isbiter: “I want to stay and work in Hungary.”

Onur starts with a calm handshake and a big smile on his face. He is a graduate engineer student of PTE Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. He starts to talk about himself without a question.

Where are you from? I am from Turkey, west part of Turkey.

Why did you choose Hungary? Why Hungary? Before I came here, my two friends were already studying here. After my high school, I also wanted to study in Europe.

So, Europe was the first point. Yeah, my first point was Europe. But as my two friends were already here, they told me a lot about Pécs, about the university and the city as well. I didn’t speak any English (his English is perfect for now), so they told me first I should make an English course here. And this is the reason why I am here.

What is your major, and why did you choose it? My major is Civil Engineering. The reason why I choose this major is that my father is a constructor, I would like to have a good carrier with my father.

Back in Turkey? Yeah. But after I have seen Europe, after I have seen life standard, I have changed my idea. I would like to work in Europe.

Do you plan to stay here? Yes, I want to stay and work in Hungary. Now I am a bachelor student, also I would like to have my master’s degree on the University of Pécs. I am not sure about PhD yet, but if I have an opportunity to work after my master, probably I will choose that.

We are turning away a little from professional themes. Onur mentions, that he can speak Hungarian. So, I must ask about his favorite Hungarian sentences/expressions are. His eyes bright up, and he replies immediately: „Drágám!” „Szívem!”. Now my suspicion is confirmed that he had a Hungarian girlfriend, that is why he needed to study to communicate in our language, because otherwise he couldn’t be keep in touch with her family. Besides that, he is doing kick box professionally, so he also was motivated to study Hungarian because of his training companion. We are talking a bit about how motivational love can be to study a foreign language, but I am still interested in a few things, so I keep on asking him.

What do you do if you don’t sport? Pécs is a good and lovely city, but it is not so busy, it is quite little. That is a good thing, as you can focus more on your studies. We do a lot of things with my friends, we like hiking, or just hanging around in the city.

Do you take part in any professional programs? He laughs. – Yes, the English program I mentioned before, I also took part in a dancing program, I studied German, Hungarian. And I also do yoga.

I think about professional programs that are connected to your major. Yes, we usually visit companies and factories with my professor. I love it. If I have a choice, I always take part in these.

Your friends also study here? I have a lot of friends, not only from this faculty, and I also have Hungarian friends. What is the most memorable thing that you faced here? Respect. I think it is a very nice thing, and Hungarians are really good in it.

I am a little doubt about it, but he tells me a story that happened in Hungary. In the first, the electricity was gone in a store where he was doing his shopping. He was the third in the queue. When the cash registers started to work again, the person who was behind him before, automatically left him back to his place in the queue. His other experience happened in a hospital. During boxing he injured, but in this Hungarian hospital everybody was so kind and treated him so professional. Even the doctors and the other patients as well. Onur was touched by this behavior, because as he says, in Turkey the people are more local patriots. Here, in Hungary they don’t care about the type of your skin, or the place you are from. They don’t mind if you don’t speak fluently in Hungarian. Not these are the things that matter.

He organizes his time in a good way, he says that he also learned it here. If he needs to study, he is focusing on it a hundred percent. If the school is not so busy, he is dealing with his hobbies more.

He is purposeful, but still very cool and informal. It was really good to talk with someone, who has such nice ideas and expressions about Hungarian people. Onur gives a glimpse why is an international student like our city, what he gets from UPFC, and how is it absolutely possible, that someone has such good professional perspective, that he would like to stay and work in Hungary.