For me, the impact of studying abroad was realized through language — without being able to communicate, I would have missed out on the sincerity of expression that one only achieves in their native tongue. I decided to study abroad in Almaty, Kazakhstan after my second week of Russian language instruction, while I was still figuring out the Cyrillic alphabet. Kazakhstan was appealing partially because I didn’t know much about Central Asia and partially because of the opportunity to immerse myself in the Russian language which, at the time, I also didn’t know much about.

Almaty rests at the base of the Tien-Shan mountains and my bedroom looked out at them from a high vantage point, granting me a truly beautiful view of the mountains’ colors in the fall, snows once October hit, and first lights of morning as they crept down into the city. The mountains themselves were accessible by an hour trip on a city bus, which cost about 28 cents. I made hiking trips in late summer and fall, and skipped class on Thanksgiving to go snowboarding. The city is very walkable and filled with parks and cafés; it’s also home to most of the country’s universities.

I was enrolled in classes at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU). My peers and I studied grammar, writing, speaking, phonetics, and the history and politics of Central Asia for 4–6 hours per day, entirely in Russian. We met twice weekly with ‘language partners,’ who were Kazakh students enrolled in the international relations faculty at KazNU. My language partner Жанерке (Zhanerke) introduced me to my favorite restaurants and coffee shops, attended the Kazakhstan-Austria soccer match with me, and even joined our group on an overnight train trip to western Kazakhstan. Because each student had their own language partner, we ended up with a friend group of roughly 50 American and Kazakh students, where invites were inclusive and plans abundant.

In addition to making local connections through the university, my host family made me feel like I was living in, rather than just visiting, Almaty. My host dad Malik is a professor at KazNU and was willing to engage with me in local political conversation, explain colloquial phrasings, and help me navigate the city or plan trips outside of it. When my family visited, he devoted many hours to ensuring that they would have the best time possible. Malik’s daughter, Aigerim, is a few years older than me and was always responsive to what I demonstrated interest in; she accompanied me on my first trip to the banya (sauna), a three-story traditional nude bath house, and encouraged me to purchase a venik experience (in which a masked woman beat me with a bundle of branches in a ~180ºF sauna room).

I’m incredibly grateful for the enthusiasm and thorough instruction of Cheryl and Marina, my professors at Bates. They encouraged me to pursue what initially seemed like a wild idea of studying abroad using a language I had just begun to study. My time in Kazakhstan demonstrated to me the power of language in cross-cultural interactions and is among the most memorable few months of my life. I enthusiastically recommend studying abroad – especially using a foreign language — to everyone.