Let us introduce Amirul Haqqi who will be the guest for our upcoming event “Life Hacks & Fun Facts about Being an International Student in Szeged”. Below you can read Amirul's introduction.

My name is Amirul Haqqi, in Hungarian would be Haqqi Amirul. I am 25 years old Indonesian, but when I was 18, I moved to India for my bachelor's in Francophone literature. I spent 3,5 years there. After that, I decided to register for Summer University in Szeged and that was such an amazing experience. I learned a lot of Hungarian there, with Kovács Margit as my teacher using Durst Péter books that I adore so much. When I was there, we learned a lot about Hungarian culture, we even went to Ópusztaszer National Heritage Park, seeing Feszty Panorama where they tell the story of Árpád arrival to the Carpathian Basin, I was really moved by it. That was lovely.

The reason why I came to Hungary was because I had a teacher in India, Köves Margit, who introduced me to Molnár Ferenc’s Pál Utcai Fiúk and Bartis Attila’s Nyugalom (I met him in India). I love them and it lit the fire in my heart to come to Hungary to learn more about the melancholy of Hungary since I won second position writing an essay about Trianon and Ady Endre's poems.

After that, I went to do a master in Religious Study at SZTE, at first it was difficult since it was not my field of study but all the professors encouraged me and believed in me, I got 5 grades in everything and my Hungarian became really well, to be honest, not being arrogant but on the street and in the university, everybody praised me how well I speak Hungarian. The only thing I had difficulty with was the “s” and “sz” in pronunciation and when to put the preverb or phrasal verbs. But in conclusion, I understood clearly, and they appreciated my effort to speak Hungarian grammatically correctly. It took me almost 1,5 or 2 years to be able to reach C1 level. Funny story, when I did my C1 exam, they deducted a bit of points because I spoke in the “szegedi” dialect where they used the letter “ö”. Just like “mög”, instead of “meg”. It was funny enough.

“Egészségedre” was difficult at first, but then I mastered it. The only thing I had difficulties with was “Csendesen susog a sás”. That was awful to pronounce.

Since I am bipolar, I have visited the hospital so many times, to be honest, thanks to my Hungarian capability I can get along well with the nurses and the doctors. But I suppose it will be difficult if you don’t since not everyone in the healthcare system speaks English well. Well, they do, but not at an advanced level. But! The family doctor does, so don’t worry about that.

Politically, since Szeged is independent, I don’t have a problem that could affect me intensively. I’ve been living here in Szeged, and as a foreigner, I haven’t had any bad experiences, such as racism or homophobia. I adore this city, full of foreigners, when I got lost people were kind and helpful. Even at the hairdresser, pharmacy, and shops. The only thing I had difficulties with was at the dentist, they would send me around to another department to the point I got tired and left the building while my teeth were hurting.

The funny thing that I experienced was always in the Hungarian language, once I said “csókolom” to my male professor, and once I asked for a basket of beer instead of a big glass, or something stupid like that. I strongly advise everyone to learn Hungarian if you want to make friends easily because in my experience, foreign students come and go and it’s hard to stay in contact with them. Well, having Hungarian friends will help you in a lot of ways.

Life hacks for example, would be going out to parties, making friends, study when you need to, but don’t be a student who just goes to class and right away to the library the whole day because you will burn out. Sometimes you need to rest and be in a social circle. If you ever want to have a friend to hang out with, I’d gladly be one for you.

Now I’m doing a Ph.D. for a year in the Philosophy department, but I left it since it was not my passion and I was struggling, so I changed department to French Literature which I am excited to do so much! Because I love to read, I speak French well, and the professors were very lovely and helpful!

You can meet with Amirul soon at our event.

❗The event is free but registration is required❗