hi there it's Asiya the other day I've realized that I've been making
videos on IELTS preparation for about two and a half years and right now my
channel has crossed three hundred thousand subscribers so first of all I
want to thank you for following me and for watching my videos it means a world
to me but I've also realized that I've never
talked much about myself and how I managed to move to London how I managed
to stay here and so I decided to use this opportunity to introduce myself and
hopefully my story will inspire you to explore different opportunities that you
have in your life and it doesn't have to be immigration and if you decide that
you want to hear more from me on topics beyond IELTS then in June I'm launching
my new Instagram it's called an empty at the moment I already have the account of
asya yatah on Instagram and so if you decide please feel free to start
following me but I stopped posting in June after I finished my new is speaking
course and it will be available from the 1st of June and then I have more time
for Instagram anyway now let's get started well
originally I'm from Kazakhstan but for a long time and lived in neighbouring of
Kyrgyzstan it's a small country in Central Asia and most people in the
United Kingdom have never heard about it that's why I just say I'm from
Kazakhstan but actually I finished my first University in Kyrgyzstan and
worked in the Central Bank for Euro 2 and then I went to study abroad and
actually immigration wasn't in my plans back then at all all we wanted is to get
this international experience to live abroad for a bead perhaps to work in
some country and then come back so I was selecting a university based on that
and I actually considered various countries New Zealand Australia the
United States and then eventually the United Kingdom and I chose London I
think that was a great choice and because I didn't plan on working in the
same country I didn't really worry about their rankings of the university too
much because I knew that in other countries people will have no idea and
but then I couldn't afford to pay for LSE or Oxford some name that would be
known everywhere I had quite modest means and I prefer to keep a bit more
money for living expenses and actually chosen University with very modest fees
and got a little scholarship as well so the university was based in London but
the universities actually from Cardiff it was not bad I quite enjoyed studying
there but I think I underestimated how international the world is and I would
say if you are choosing the University now then try to choose the best
university you can get into for example I started with distinction all my life
so I could apply to good universities but I didn't I think you should try and
do you know if you study in an english-speaking country you can work
you're in studies and cover some of your expenses not all of them otherwise you
won't be able to study won't be able to sleep you won't have time but some
expenses yes you can definitely do that so I arrived to London and I actually
love the city so much that after a few months of studying I really started to
feel tempted to stay here for longer and that was the point when I discovered the
two-year post had a work visa in the UK basically back then everyone who
graduated with a degree could apply for this visa and get it almost
automatically and stay in the country for two more years even studying or
working for a couple of years but there was one problem
this program was due to be terminated one month before my graduation can you
imagine my disappointment luckily it was not long because very soon after that
the university made an announcement that they're going to accelerate our masters
so they shortened our dissertation writing period they convinced our
supervisors to check our dissertations over the Christmas period and we
graduated about two weeks before the deadline so we just had enough time to
apply for this new needs out so this route was closed for years but actually
it's coming back everyone who graduates from 2021 in the United Kingdom will be
able to apply for post had a work visa again we don't know exact details yet
because the guidance doesn't exist yet but it should be available from 2021
anyway so I got my visa and then I started to look for a job and my degree
was in hospitality management and as I remember I selected it because I didn't
realize how international countries were and I thought that for someone within
non-native English it would be easier to work with tourists or just to work in
hospitality in other countries and it didn't really believe that I could work
in bank but I was wrong London is so so international and people
from all over the world work here on very good jobs because good English is
important but does have to be native and my English was I would say like quite
average back then so I started looking for a job but I quickly got disappointed
in hospitality because first salaries in this industry are really low you need to
do exception in the world to decent money and it's just much easier to do in
other industries and then also in hospitality
experience matters a lot perhaps it matters more than your postgraduate
education but I never worked as a receptionist as a waitress so I couldn't
even apply for graduate programs in like big hotel chains just because I worked
in a bank and not in hospitality so I abandoned it I haven't worked in
hospitality a single day in my life so I started to apply for jobs in banking
again so I applied I attended a number of interviews past sound failed some
eventually ended up with a job in business banking in what used to be the
largest bank in the world at some points and it was actually quite a good job but
if you work in a big company you do like particular patience and I remember that
I felt a bit frustrated that I had some ideas I thought I knew how to improve
things but actually no one was interested in that because you still
have to do the work first of all and only occasionally you have opportunities
to change something so by the end of my post had a work visa I actually got a
new offer for a new position in the same Bank but I knew that in the UK in order
to stay I need to be on the work visa for five years
well yes but at that point I already wanted to stay in this country and so
five years with the same company because moving jobs while you are on a work visa
is a bit risky if you're resigned from one company and the new company pulls
out for whatever reason you have 60 days is to leave the country so I would just
stay with the same bank and there was another opportunity to go down the into
preneur route and to open my own company which was much more uncertain much more
risky but then I would have all this code for implementing all my ideas as
soon as I wish to and actually that's the route I took
that's how fast-track education was born initially this company helped be able to
come to study at UK universities and we set it up together with my friend who's
whom I actually came to study in the UK and she had background in education and
she had experience in UK university admissions and I had to learn on the job
and actually having your own company is just this completely different
experience I learned so much from how to build our company website how to film
videos and everything else so that was very challenging but also very
interesting when you have the opportunity to do what you want to do
and just to see all the results of your work today my friend is not part of this
company anymore she lives in another country actually but I persevered and we
started making YouTube videos together with her to tell people more about
education in the UK so they could make an informed decision about whether they
should study here whether it's the right choice for them and excellently first of
those videos were a little bit embarrassing that say my first video on
IELTS is - available on this channel and I feel today I could do much better but
the best video is still available because I think it just shows that if
you want to do something you can learn how to do it and if you're not
particularly to reduce it something from the very
beginning it doesn't mean you can't learn so this video is still on my
channel and it's actually it attracted a lot of views and I saw how big the
demand is for IELTS preparation content and I realized that actually there is
nobody or almost nobody on YouTube who talks about IELTS from the perspective
of a non-native English speaker who takes this exam to study to work because
most videos come from trained teachers English speakers who actually never
taken the exam themselves so I have a different perspective and I started to
make more videos and today I still work with students applying to universities
mainly with those who apply to top universities and who need support
preparing their personal statement their documents because that's the most
challenging bit of work and today my students studied almost all topic a
universities it's very rewarding I like this part of work but I would say that I
spend most of my time researching IELTS writing essays checking different
strategies just to find a way to get a highest score at your current level of
English today I can see the London home that's where I met my husband that's
really that's where my businesses and next year I'll be able to apply to
become a British citizen and thinking 10d aspect I would never believe that
it's possible I would never believe that I would make youtube videos that I would
have 300,000 subscribers on my channel that I would live in London and when you
live in a country and you're relatively secluded from the rest of the world it's
quite easy to think that all that is unattainable but once you're in London
or in another big megapolis you just see all these opportunities and you see
other people doing that and that's one of the main attractions and that's why I
think it's great to go abroad you don't have to emigrate here but if you have an
opportunity to study here for a while to work even to take English courses
you absolutely should and I would think explore different opportunities you have
and pursue your dreams be more ambitious people who achieve things they just
pursue what they want one little step at a time
so try thank you so much for watching me today
and good luck
you