Yura Zhankeldin, a student of the Institute of Business Communication of SUITD came to study in Saint-Petersburg from a small Mongolian city on the border with Kazakhstan. She studies tourism at the university and dreams of opening her own travel agency to show people from other countries her beautiful homeland 鈥� Mongolia.
Tell us, please, why your parents named you Yura?
鈥� My father dreamed of becoming an astronaut and even tried to enroll in an astronaut-related field in Russia. Eventually he became a businessman, but his love for space didn鈥檛 fade, so he chose the name "Yura" for me 鈥� in honor of Yuri Gagarin. My friends joked that I would be well received in Russia, because I had a Russian name.
Did your father encourage your interest in Russia?
鈥� Yes, dad really wanted to introduce me to this country. We traveled around Russia often, coming here four times a year. Most of the time it was cities near the Mongolian border: Ulan-Ude, Barnaul, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk. Then, in my senior year in high school, I started to learn Russian and decided to go to a Russian university. Parents wanted me to become a doctor, but my dream was to be a travel agent. Besides Russia we often traveled around Mongolia, to Kazakhstan and China. I really enjoyed traveling and thought about turning it into a profession. Parents were against my choice, but I explained to them that I really love my country, want to develop tourism here and show the world that Mongolia isn鈥檛 just steppes and nomadic tribes. We have megapolises, museums, ski resorts and so much more. That is my dream.
Why did you choose the University of Industrial Technologies and Design?
鈥� When I was comparing Russian universities I realized that SUITD is the best place to gain a travel degree. In addition, I鈥檓 fond of Saint-Petersburg. I like that our university is located in the heart of the city, not far from Nevsky Prospect and Palace Square. I walk a lot, look for interesting places for tourists. When my friends from Mongolia who study in Moscow came to visit me, I was their travel guide. They said that Saint-Petersburg is the most beautiful city in the world and now they鈥檙e going to come here for their master鈥檚 degree.
Was it easy to adapt to studying in Russia?
鈥� I was very worried about how I would be received here, wondering how I would communicate with foreign people. But I decided that if I don鈥檛 fulfill my dream, it will torment me for the rest of my life. It was really difficult at first, because people didn鈥檛 understand me well. So I decided to develop my knowledge of the Russian language through reading. For four years I鈥檝e already read 50 books in Russian. Most of all I liked Bulgakov鈥檚 novel 芦The Master and Margarita禄, although it was hard to understand it, I had to read it twice. But now I teach Russian online to children from Mongolia.
Is your graduation project related to tours of Mongolia?
鈥� Yes, I am working on a non-standard 10-day-tour for young people in Mongolia. It鈥檚 an adventure tourism, it includes cultural and educational parts as well as an extreme one. We will see the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, where the museums, Buddhist temples and a huge monument to Genghis Khan are located. Then we will go and see how the nomads live. Indeed, some Mongolians still live in yurts and maintain their traditional culture. The tour ends with a stay at the Gorkhi-Terelj ski resort.
What are your plans after graduation?
鈥� I haven鈥檛 achieved my goals, so I鈥檓 going to continue the education and gain a master鈥檚 degree at our university. This year we have a pre-graduation internship at a travel agency, and I will try to stay there. In the future I would like to open my own travel agency in Russia and its branch in Mongolia so I can send Russians to my homeland and my fellow countrymen here. I want to always have these two countries in my life.
