International Students Testimonials

Tat Nguyen, Vietnam

I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University

I took up medicine in order to get a girl to like me; eventually I decided to become a doctor

I’m Vietnamese, 23 years of age. I chose medicine when I was a high schooler in 10th grade. It’s an amusing story; I liked a girl and I wanted to get on with her but I wasn’t successful. I found out that she was keen on medicine and took an interest in it, too. We finally made friends and I decided to become a doctor. I found Sechenov University info on the Internet; I googled “best Russian medical universities” and got a list which included MSMU.

My parents worked in the USSR under a government agreement in the late 1980s, so I knew Russian a little. I believe that everybody who plans to study in Russia needs to learn Russian even if you have chosen an English-taught major. In my opinion, one of the obstacles to learning any language is the fear of making a mistake as you talk and losing face. In actual fact, there’s nothing to fear, we learn from our errors. You have to speak and communicate a lot; even swearing in Russian might be useful. Studying here is not easy but very interesting so my advice to come to Russia is for the students who really like medicine and know why they’re studying it.