Tarik Saglam (Zheng He) was a Turkish student who studied Chinese Language in School of International Education of Wuhan University between September 2016 and June 2020, and obtained a bachelor’s degree. During this period, he won many awards at our university and at the national level, including the Outstanding Graduate of Wuhan University award in 2020 and Excellent International Students Scholarship by the Chinese Government in 2019. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree at East China Normal University in International Relations and lives in Canada.
郑和（Tarik Saglam）, 土耳其籍，2016年9月 -- 2020年6月，就读于武汉大学国际教育学院汉语言专业，获学士学位。在读期间，他获得了多项校级和国家级大奖。曾荣获2019年“中国政府优秀来华留学生”奖学金和2020年“武汉大学优秀毕业生”称号。目前在华东师范大学国际关系专业攻读硕士学位，现居加拿大。
This was a part of the graduation video released by Wuhan University for the 2020 graduates. If I ever had to define my 3.5 years there, I probably wouldn’t have been able to express it any better than this. My time in Wuhan in many ways was the “most colorful journey” of my life so far. I arrived as an 18-year-old high school graduate, learned an entirely new language, met amazing people from all over the world, had priceless experiences and graduated with an honor which I will always be proud of.
They say common experiences unite people even more, and perhaps because of this very reason, I didn’t only form friendships but a new family of people with whom we shared some of the most memorable days of our lives. Although it is true that the circumstances are slightly different now, I am certain that there are still quite a few things that I could share with you. Personal experiences can be different from one another, yet I believe that at the end of the day, we’re usually not as different as we think.
Be Present
Some people believe that studying in Wuhan University is quite challenging, especially if you’re majoring in a field that demands a lot of extra work, and this is true to some extent. However, in numerous occasions around me, I witnessed that this is by no means an excuse to exclude yourself from extracurricular life around you. On the contrary, having a stable and healthy extracurricular life can have a very positive impact on your academic life too. All you have to do is to take that first step and be present in the world around you. In my case, taking the first step of attending the weekly sessions of Wuhan University International Students Model UN (WISMUN) society in 2017 led me to numerous conferences all over the world (including the UN headquarters in New York & Vienna) and eventually becoming the Secretary-General of our society.
Therefore, I highly recommend you to take that first step out of your comfort zone and be present in the campus life around you. Don’t forget, academic success is highly dependent on mental health, and this is a great way to balance it. I assure you that even you’d be surprised by the number of opportunities you can find or the kind of people you may encounter.
Meet New People
I can’t emphasize how important this is, and if I had the chance, I would have written it in all capital letters. Wuhan University had one of the most diverse international student communities I had ever seen in my life, and contrary to the common belief that the city of Wuhan may not deliver the kind of “colorful” and vivid experience like Shanghai or Beijing, you’d be amazed by the different kinds of people (both, foreign and Chinese) you can meet there. Some of these friendships I had there remain with me to this day and I can see many of them being with me for the rest of my life.
One point I’d like to emphasize here is that, put your prejudices aside when meeting new people in China. As I mentioned in the first part, the common experience of “studying in Wuhan University” can be a very uniting aspect in itself. Regardless of our nationalities or backgrounds, we are all away from home, for similar purposes and in an environment which is very open for us to interact. This is a very rare and precious experience which you may not have in the next phase of your life, so while you still have it, make the most of it and make new memories, both with your foreign and Chinese friends. I am certain many of them will last much longer than you’d expect.
Be Open
You may not have eaten a meal using chopsticks before, or may have only seen Chinese shadow boxing (太极拳, Taijiquan) in a Jackie Chan movie before. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try them because they’re not “what you’re used to”, and on the contrary, Wuhan University is a heaven for these kinds of opportunities. There is barely anything in my life that I regret for trying, but so many of those which I never gave a chance. When an opportunity is there, take it, don’t hesitate because one way or the other, it will most probably be a once in a life time experience which you won’t be able to try back home. Remember, a lot of these privileges are not granted and would not be available once we take the next step in our lives.
So once you have taken that first step out of your comfort zone, met some people with whom you can share experiences, take this last step and be open. I had a friend who started Chinese shadow boxing as a part of the elective course offered in our faculty, and within a few months, she was competing with Chinese students from all over Wuhan, representing our school. The phrase “Nothing is impossible” may sound too generic, but it can be very accurate in the case of China.
“无论你出走多远，归来仍是珞珈一少年“ (No matter how far you go, you’ll always be a young student at Luojia). Looking back to it after almost 2 years, I can feel this ever more intense than before. Although a lot has changed since my first arrival to Wuhan in 2016, the memories and excitement of the 3.5 years I spent there are still very vivid. I genuinely hope some of my words will have resemblances in your lives, and wish you all the best with your endeavours at Wuhan University and beyond.
