Spoken by only around 12 million people in the world, Hungarian language has always been considered as one of the most difficult languages. Having said that, most of the international students at the University do not take Hungarian language assuming it would be difficult to learn. Iheb Azzouz, a Tunisian student is an inspiration for many. He is a final year BA International Relations student enrolled in the Hungarian language program after learning the language from scratch via a one-year preparatory course.

Congratulations, you did it! You arrived in Pécs, probably thousands of miles away from home, ready for your new adventure. Excited to meet new people, to get to know an unknown culture. But as soon as you step onto Hungarian soil, you become aware of one crucial problem: you don’t speak Hungarian. And when you only get vague looks and slightly rude headshakes when you ask “Do you speak English?”, you realise you are in more trouble than you thought. How are you going to solve this? Get a taxi, ask directions in a foreign city, order a beer -- language is essential.

As an international student here in Pécs, one of the first thoughts that came to my mind was how will I make friends? Will I find people my age to be around? It was such an overwhelming feeling, leaving behind a group of friends from high school whom I grew up with to go somewhere new where I would have to find myself and make new friends.